Anthony of Asgard
by Renne Michaels
Summary: Loki's back in Asgard leaving Tony minus a lab partner, wingman and buddy, he wonders how it is possible to feel so lonely in a city so full of people. He's an engineer, he decides to fix this after a major screwup on his part. FrostIron Loki, Tony Stark, Ironman, Thor, Jane, Frigga, Odin, Fury, Colson and the Avengers. You do not have to have read QUEENS GRACE to follow this.
1. Chapter 1 - Nobody said life would ever

**Chapter Summary** \- After housing the God of Mischief in his tower for several years Loki is recalled to Asgard. This leaves Tony minus a lab partner, wingman and buddy to snark with on Movie Night. Pepper has moved to the west coast and married, SHIELD is doing some crazy shit. With the exception of occasionally seeing Bruce, Tony doesn't have much interaction with his former team mates. He wonders how it is possible to feel so lonely in a city so full of people. He's and engineer, he decides to fix this. - Sequel to Queens Grace. You do not have to have read Queens Grace to follow this.

**TRIGGER WARNINGS IN END NOTES **

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**If you are not reading this on fanfiction .dot. net or Archiveofourown .dot. org then you are reading a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be anywhere but those two sites. Also if you're PAYING to read it, you're being cheated, because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE. Also please be aware that illegal mirror sites are often riddled with spyware and viruses.**

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

A continuation of Queens Grace the fic that refused to die. But you don't have to have read that one to understand this. I do have 70k more of Anthony of Asgard material planned eventually.

Starting premise - Loki has was recalled to Asgard after several years of being a prisoner in Stark Tower as a favor to Queen Frigga when Asgard proved to be too dangerous to his now mortal and memory altered self. After his recall, Loki and Tony started a long distance friends with benefits relationship that takes place on Loki's yearly reward visit to Midgard.

Please visit me on tumblr RenneMichaels if you see my Snowflake Avatar you're in the right place

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Nobody said life would ever be easy. **

**Chapter 1a - Tony buys a car **

It had been a terrible week, but then it always was before his yearly trip. Every year Odin would yell and tell him that no matter what had been agreed, this year he was not travelling to Midgard. And every year, Frigga and Thor had to jump in and separate them as he and Odin sniped, yelled and occasionally screamed at each other.

Oh, first Loki would be offered a sop of some sort or the other. This year it was an offer of a trip lasting a whole week if he went to Álfheimr instead of Midgard. Last year, it was Odin had offered the a few minor powers back if he stayed in Asgard. In previous years, there had been other forms of enticement, some good, some bad, although the year that he had been offered a rich wife in the form of a minor Vanir princess named Sigyn was probably the worst. Not that the girl wasn't lovely, she was, and in exactly the lithe way that Loki liked. But she also came from a family famous for their fertility. Loki would be damned if he would allow himself to be tied to Asgard by a wife and children. Someday he was going to leave, no matter what Odin said, and Loki wanted no anchors holding him back.

OoooO

Loki had lived for a thousand years, and a drought of the intimate sort lasting even thirty or forty years was doable for him, not comfortable, but doable if it was necessary. Besides, Loki always managed to enjoy himself that way on his yearly visit to Midgard.

He even found enjoyment when he had gone in disguise so that Odin couldn't recognize him or so that Tony couldn't unwittingly give him away like he had the first time. Perhaps understandably Tony did not truly understand how easily the All Father could see and hear anything he wanted to from his throne. Additionally, Frigga and Loki had no clue that Odin was keeping such a close eye on her little servitor, what with Loki being back in Asgard. Frigga had thought that distracting Odin during Loki's actual visit was all that would be necessary. A month or so later Odin had been watching when Tony spoke of the visit to one of the Avengers.

The discussion that had ensued between his parents had been loud enough that it caused no end of speculation between the servants.

Despite or perhaps in spite of the argument with Odin, Frigga had decided to continue offering him a yearly trip in return for Loki at least not openly antagonizing Odin and Thor. To avoid causing problems for his mother, the first few times he had gone secretly, allowing his mother to place a female glamour on him to hide from Odin. He scheduled his visits for the evening of the Stark International Christmas party and for reasons Loki could not even initially explain to himself… Instead of quietly informing Tony who he was and the impressing upon the little mortal the need for absolute secrecy, Loki decided to have a bit of fun. As so he did. Have fun that is. In the following years Loki had always managed to grab Tony's attention, even if it had required him to be sometimes more than a bit manipulative to capture the playboy's attention.

The whole charade had not been without its darkly amusing side; Tony finally got what he wanted from Loki, but just didn't know it. Perhaps not so amusing was Loki's inability to decide if this was all to lay groundwork in case of future need… Or rather assuage a need that he had but didn't want to acknowledge. Oh, Loki could tell himself anything, and the Nine knew he could spin out perfectly reasonable justifications for anything until the cycle renewed. However he normally tried to be honest with himself, if only for the rarity of the experience. The problem in this case was that Loki just honestly couldn't decide which it was in his own mind.

The whole mess with the little Midgardian had his thoughts so tangled that even a solid hour of concentration wasn't enough to yield a single coherent thought on his feelings for Tony.

On one hand Loki hated the mouthy, but cute little mortal who had ignored him when he needed help. On the other, Tony could be an engaging companion who not only appreciated, but even joined in and encouraged Loki's favorite past time of messing with people's heads. The man was intelligent, a point in his favor. However Tony was also extremely selfish, and frankly Loki had put up with enough of that from Thor. Tony was interested in Loki to the point of putting years of effort into trying to get him in bed. Make no mistake; such persistence was flattering from a certain angle, yet it was also scary from another. Tony wanted Loki's knowledge to be sure, but had more than repaid the information he received with insights and information exchanges that benefited Loki. More important than all of the rest was that Tony Stark had the means and the power to provide a safe haven for Loki in case of great need. And that was definitely a card worth keeping in his hand.

Unable to decide in his own mind why, in the end Loki had taken a page from his brother's book and fallen into the habit of just not thinking about it. He ruthlessly dragged his thoughts away whenever they drifted towards the whys of his allowing Tony to annually seduce him without knowing it was him and just enjoyed it for the physical release that it was.

This had worked fine until the year Tony had caught onto him. Several days after his visit, during their monthly letter exchange Tony had included photos and security footage of the lovely woman he had met during the just passed Yule celebration. Tony had gone on and on, praising 'her' intelligence, looks and charm while bragging how 'she' was totally into him; as well 'she' should be because he was after all Tony Stark.

Mortified did not even begin to describe how Loki felt when he had to listen to a long tongue in cheek ramble about how great this 'woman' was and how Tony had felt like he had 'known her' for years despite just conversing with 'her' for a few hours. Loki had declined to even comment on the subject, even after Tony had brought it up again the next month, sending him a few more pictures and asking Loki what 'he' thought of 'her'.

The month after that, the mortal had sent his mother an exquisite dragonfly motif hair comb and a letter asking her if there was anything she could do to get 'Loki himself' approval for another visit to Earth. His Mother had of course badgered Loki about the strange wording of the request until he had been forced to admit that the mortal had somehow found out about Loki's deception. Frigga's finger had paused in its light tracing of the dragonfly design as she raised amused blue eyes to regard him. A few months later when the All Father had complimented her on the antique gold and tortoise shell comb, she had casually passed on Tony's request and her adamant recommendation that it be granted without ever letting on that Loki had been visiting all along in disguise.

OoooO

Wrenching his attention from the past and back to the work at hand, Loki checked that the structure being built for the next set of bridge supports was actually following the plans he had drawn up. Assured that it had been Loki once again mounted his horse, and followed by his personal guards, returned to his construction office.

He managed to keep his expression set so as not to show anything that would hint to Asgard what he was thinking about. Internally though Loki smirked, thinking of all the times he and Tony had teased each other into a frenzy. And the best time of all was the year Tony had come out and in Tony's words, 'busted him' and told him to make sure he was in his normal male Æsir form when he came back the next year or he wasn't going to allow him in bed. The memories of Tony finally moaning his name were enough to kick off his private fantasies for the rest of the year. Well, his memories and the surveillance videos that Jarvis had kindly downloaded for him of that night and several of the previous ones that he had shared with Tony.

While Loki's expression was almost always bland and courteous, his guards had spent a lot of time with him. He was aware that there was some speculation on what exactly the normally tightly focused Loki might be thinking of when that strange distant look came over him.

OoooO

The minute Heimdall left, Loki knew something was wrong. Normally Tony was waiting at the terrace entrance for him. Occasionally Pepper, if she was in her New York office would also meet him. Loki didn't always see Pepper in person, but she did try to make it as often as often as she could manage. If she couldn't schedule a New York Visit, he at least talked to her by phone or video conference.

Loki knew he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a bit disappointed that no one was on hand to greet him, but he did know that even with the best of intentions, Stark sometimes got caught up in the lab and Jarvis had a hard time getting his attention.

Loki shouldering his now ratty Iron Man backpack and carrying a large, heavy duty, reinforced leather duffle bag he let himself into Stark's large living room. "Hello Jarvis, where's Tony. Is he down in the lab?"

"Good evening Loki." The AI greeted him warmly. "Mister Stark got a call about a car he has been trying to buy and went to look at it this afternoon and he hasn't made it back yet. I will call him and let him know you are here."

"Thanks Jarvis," Loki laughed, "I'm going to run a few things down to the lab. Tell Tony that I am starting without him."

"I will do so sir."

Dropping his backpack on top of the bar, he carried the duffle bag down to the lab. Clearing space on one of the work benches, he unpacked about ninety pounds of mineral powders from the oversized leather questing duffle. He hoped that by providing the materials that were necessary to grow bridge crystals in their raw form, it would make it easier for Tony's research team to identify and source them on Midgard. He also unpacked over a hundred pounds each of Adamantine and Cavorite ingots.

"Sir, I'm having trouble reaching Mister Stark, but I will keep trying. Would you like to come back up to the penthouse when you are done and look over the books and files that we have ready for you to take back?"

"Thank you Jarvis, I'll do that, it will save time later. And I have some stuff to drop off up there also." Loki said smiling up at the AI. Which, he understood was not necessary, and Tony always laughed when he did it… but it seemed strange to look off in a corner where a camera was, when Jarvis's voice issued from the ceiling.

While he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that Tony wasn't here to meet him, he knew the man had the attention span of a child, and most likely would not have been able to resist looking at the car the minute he was called about it. It was just typical Tony behavior. When dealing with the genius you had to understand that sometimes his priorities were a bit skewed. After emptying the duffle and checking out the new stuff sitting around the lab, Loki went upstairs. Grabbing his back pack he unpacked a few bottles of an excellent elfin Celarta liqueur and several more bottles of various Æsir mead and whiskey equivalents, hiding them behind the bar for Tony to find later. He'd also hid presents from himself, Frigga and Thor for Tony and Pepper under the large Yule tree in the corner.

Loki spent the time waiting for Tony talking to Jarvis and reloading his back pack with various items set out for him. A new custom, big screen Stark laptop, a few external hard drives, one empty, one full of program files and research papers, sd cards, electronic books, new music and anything else that Tony thought he might be interested in. There were also supplies for his printer, packs of his favorite types of candy and the ubiquitous Iron Man gear that Tony delighted in giving him, t-shirts and some strange stuffed children's toys this year.

Loki stowed the shirts, blushing when he thought about an incident that had happened during the times when he had been forced to sneak around in order to visit Midgard once a year. He was when he was still disguised of course, lest Odin sitting on Hlidskjalf decide to cast his eyes upon Midgard. That year he had again shape shifted into a petite brunette female who, like various shape shifted versions of the previous years had no trouble intriguing the billionaire and being invited upstairs. That year Tony had talked him into wearing an Ironette outfit, only with red spike heels instead of boots. He had found the a few weeks later that by that time, unknown to him, Tony had been wise to his tricks and had known the woman was actually Loki, but just wasn't letting on.

Later, when he was openly visiting Midgard, Tony hauled a version of that outfit out of his closet sized for Loki's male form, and wanted Loki to wear it after dinner that evening. Thinking the billionaire wouldn't agree, Loki had said that he would, but only if Tony wore a collar and leash and nothing else. He was stunned at the speed at which Tony had not only smirkingly agreed, but was actually leashed, collared and naked. Loki wasn't even done trying on the heels for size before Tony was finished getting dressed. Or rather undressed. That Tony actually had a collar and leash in his closet, a very tasteful red leather number, had amazed him so much he couldn't find it in himself to be the least bit shy about his own outfit that evening. It had been a fun night over all, even if it still made him blush just thinking about it.

Casting his mind about for something to distract it, Loki realized just how hungry he was. In the days leading up his annual visit he was usually too upset to eat much, partially due to excitement and partially due to the stress of arguing with Odin.

"Jarvis, I am quite hungry. Could you order some pizza and Chinese for us please? Hopefully Tony will be back before the food arrives."

"Of course sir and might I suggest a German Riesling I have chilling on the top shelf of the wine cooler? I understand that some of the more adventurous food critics are now pairing it with both Pizza and many of the Chinese dishes that you and Mister Stark prefer.

Tony still wasn't back when the food arrived, but Jarvis had the same items delivered to Pepper in her California office, so they had dinner together using Jarvis' security cameras as a sort of video conference system. Jarvis was right, the Riesling paired marvelously with the foods that Jarvis had selected.

Pepper had accepted, with an understanding sigh that Tony had been delayed, but was gleeful that she had more time to talk without Tony trying to monopolize the conversation. After some general catching up, including pictures of Pepper and her husband Dale's last vacation in Bali. For her part, Pepper decided to take advantage of Tony's absence and ask about Odin's more recent attempts to tie Loki to Asgard.

"So, Loki," Pepper said, casually while pouring herself another glass of wine. "Odin still trying to marry you off? Or has he finally dropped that idea?"

"Not dropped, so much as delayed. I think my mother has had words with him on the subject," Loki said with a sigh. "This year I was offered a weeklong trip to visit my Uncle Frey's court. However Sigyny continues to guest with a cousin of hers, so I occasionally see both ladies when they wander out to the BiFrost site to visit and when I am required to attend major feasts, they always seem to be seated at or near the high table."

Pepper smiled, "Well look on the bright side. Having a cousin to pal around with might distract her; perhaps her cousin will introduce her to someone else." She noticed Loki's twisted smile.

"No?" she asked in an aggrieved voice. "What's so amusing about that?"

Refusing to look at her, Loki answered. "I think they now have a competition going, to see who will captivate me first." Biting his lower lip he finally glanced at her, "It might be flattering if they weren't doing it to gain Odin's favor for their family."

"Oh."

"Okay, I can see where that sucks."

"Indeed," Loki frowned down at his plate, "I don't ever recall being the object of so much pursuit in all my years in Asgard. I'm almost starting to believe that someone has put out a memo to everyone with an eligible daughter."

"Well just be glad they don't have email there," she teased.

"Believe me Pepper," Loki retorted with a bitter smile, "Æsir gossip travels faster and farther than even Twitter would be able to achieve." Then not wanting to ruin their evening, he switched to lighter subjects, telling her about how well the plants he had taken his mother last year were blooming and Thor's latest blunders in diplomacy.

"You know, you could occasionally clue him in."

"No," Loki told her firmly. "He has to learn how to do this himself. I will not be there for him later. Besides, it's not like I see him that often, I mostly hear about his problems from others." The god essayed a small hopeful smile. "If I can't get out from under Odin's thumb, I know Thor will release my restrictions when he becomes king. And the minute he does I am leaving."

"So, I guess you are still managing not to fight with him anymore?"

"Of course not," the god said bitterly. "While I am not the least bit helpful, I am always most sympathetic when we meet. I am the perfect loving brother."

"It must make you crazy."

"You have no idea."

OoooO

Several hours and numerous excuses from Jarvis later, Loki was not so understanding. Why Tony was not answering incoming calls from his phone was originally worrying. But Jarvis was able to ascertain that Tony had not been in an accident or anything by tracking a bank transfer for the purchase of the car and then several charges after that in a restaurant and then bar. Large charges, like those for a party.

While he couldn't help but worry that perhaps he had offended Tony in some way, Loki soon dismissed that idea. He only saw Tony once a year. Also nothing in Tony's last video message had contained anything indicating that the man was upset. Loki borrowed a heavy coat of Tony's and paced out on the terrace for a while, before he finally drew up a deck chair and sat looking out over the city. Hands deep in the coat's pockets, he huddled in the chair, his booted feet up on the lower safety rail. As he sat there, it began to snow and Loki felt his thoughts turn as frozen as the night air.

He wasn't sure how long he had sat there until at last, Jarvis managed to get his attention and told him that Tony and a guest were on their way up in the elevator. Loki had just made it to the terrace doors when he saw Tony enter with a red head wrapped around him. Even if his expression had remained as frozen as the outside air, Loki felt like he had received a sharp blow to the chest. He watched unbelievingly as Tony pushed the woman up against the wall kissing her and sliding his hands under her dress for several minutes until he finally pushed her towards his bedroom.

OoooO

It was several minutes before it registered that the occasional low moan he was hearing was actually coming from him. Loki finally lifted his head from where it had been resting on the cold glass, stumbling backwards ungracefully until he was as far from the door as he could get. Sinking down on his heels the god wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his head upon them while leaning his back against the terrace's parapet wall.

He was more than painfully aware that he had absolutely no claim on Stark, and had never really had one.

It's not like he didn't know the inventor was seeing other people, he told himself, eyes stinging as he stubbornly held them open. After all he wasn't even sure in his own mind why he had originally decided to sleep with Stark. A way to fix the mortal sympathies on him in case of future need? Curiosity to see if Stark would even recognize him? Whatever the reason, once Loki had started he just couldn't resist continuing.

Besides, Stark wasn't the one who was a caged criminal, the little mortal was free to be with whoever he wanted to be with.

It was just so very disappointing that Stark hadn't even given Loki a hint that he was no longer wanted to spend time with him. If he had just left a note or something, Loki would have cleared out as soon as he had dropped off the supplies Stark had requested and picked up the updated program files. Or better, Loki would have sent Thor to do the delivery, pickup and rune maintenance.

It's not fair; Loki thought miserably beginning to rock a bit on his heels. Then after several long minutes of 'wallowing' in self-pity Loki berated himself for such sentimental nonsense.

After all, when had life in general and his in particular ever been fair?

Loki's first thought had been to just call Heimdall, forget the back pack in the house, forget renewing the Starks rune, just call Heimdall and head back to Asgard. But fair or not, he did have obligations and running home like a jilted adolescent was not happening. Just because his occasional thoughts of someday returning to Stark Tower were shattered, that still didn't mean he wanted to be trapped in Asgard for the next few centuries. And even if the man no longer wanted him as a bed partner, Stark's help with speeding up the BiFrost repair had been invaluable in the past and Loki would hate to lose any future insights the engineer might have. Besides not acting like a scorned suitor might still allow Stark's tower to be at least a temporary sanctuary in case of dire need.

His head hurt.

"Jarvis, would I be able to re-enter the suite without Stark being notified?" he called softly sure that the AI would hear him.

"Sir muted me immediately upon entering the building," Jarvis said somewhat peevishly. "So I will be unable to notify him if you enter the suite." The AI continued in a sly tone.

"Marvelous," he said tiredly, wiping a hand over his stinging eyes. "Could you check and see if I have any money left on my debit card?"

Loki stood, running his hand through his hair, slicking it back with the dampness from melted snow before dusting snow off the back of his pants where he had been leaning against the wall.

"Sir, you still have several thousand dollars left in that account, plus the considerable amount of money Sir has put into your savings to pay for the materials you have been bringing him."

"I don't want Stark's charity," Loki spat without thinking.

He stood there for several long moments. "Jarvis, please make sure you deduct the cost of the computers and other tech I've been taking home with me from my savings, let me know if it isn't enough."

"I will do so sir, I believe you can enter the suite without fear of disturbing sir as long as you stay clear of the master suite hall way."

Slipping into the suite, he grabbed his back pack and unpacked the Iron Man gear, sticking it on a shelf below the bar. Then stashing the pack and his empty duffle bag near the terrace doors, Loki took the elevator down to the small apartment on his old floor to grab his wallet from the top night stand drawer. He found it right where he had left it there when he had first returned to Asgard. Checking quickly he saw that while he had a decent amount of cash, his credit card and legal ID had expired. Fortunately his debit card didn't have an expiration date on it, so according to Jarvis it was still usable.

Jarvis' voice broke the silence, "Sir, even after deducting your computers and such, you still have several thousand dollars available to you without anything being transferred from your company stock account."

"Marvelous. Wonderful. Fine," Loki said bitterly, sliding his wallet into the coat pocket and snagging his old watch before heading for the door.

"Don't forget you will need your pin number, it's six-two-seven-five and if you would stop at the night service desk, they will give you a charged phone so sir or I can reach you if we need to."

Punching the down button savagely, the doors slid open. "I don't need a phone Jarvis. I'll be back around six, which will give me enough time to finish my business before I have to call Heimdall at seven."

"I understand sir, but I really must insist that you-"

"Jarvis please, I'm afraid I'm not in the mood."

"May I ask where you are going?" The AI asked after a long moment. "I may be able to assist you."

"I have absolutely no idea where I'm going. Maybe a bar. Maybe a whorehouse. Maybe I'll go get my mother a DVD player of her own." He took a deep shuttering breath. "I just don't know."

"I understand sir, there is a twenty-four hour Best Buy at One Union Square South, would you like me to call you a cab? Or shall I have security will drop you off there?"

"A cab will be fine. Thank you." Using the reflective surfaces in the elevator, Loki brushed his hair back and straightened his jacket.

"Jarvis, if Stark…" Loki paused, trying to make his tone a bit more upbeat. "Well, never mind that. Jarvis, thank you for all your help this evening. I really do appreciate it."

"It was my pleasure sir."

The rest of the ride was silent. Just before the elevator door opened Jarvis spoke to him again. "Mister Odinson, security informs me that they are holding a cab for you by the west entrance."

OoooO

A few hours after he had arrived, Loki left one very happy employee at the Best Buy store. Over the course of his shopping, the young man had guided him from department to department helping him select a dependable rechargeable DVD player, a Nook electronic reader, a very expensive digital camera with all the accessories, a digital photo printer, photographic inks, the very latest 3D Printer, consumables for both printer, numerous DVD's and a Visa gift card that he could use to buy books for the Nook immediately. He had confided to Loki that while he received no commission on the items he sold, he did receive preferential treatment for hours and departments if he was a top seller. Since Loki thought someone should be happy today, he told the young man to add service contracts to everything he bought, even though he knew he would never be using them.

When Loki mentioned that he had to leave the country in the morning for an extended stay in a remote location with no stores or internet access, his salesman turned him over to a friend of his in the technical department who assisted him in setting up the Nook and using the gift card to download numerous books for his mother.

Not that Loki couldn't have done it himself. Eventually. Jarvis had mostly done it for him when he lived on Midgard, so paying a tech worker who did things like this all the time for customers was just faster. And one less thing he would have to do when he got back to Stark Tower. And if the store thought he was being charged for a particularly complicated computer repair, Loki was sure he didn't care.

Exiting the store, Loki looked at his watch and decided that even adding in travel time, he had more than an hour to kill until it was time to get a cab back to Stark Tower. While he was certain that all of the books he had on sd cards were DRM cracked, he decided to download a few more books for his mother, perhaps some gardening books? Digital photography books? History books? Or perhaps even a selection of Midgardian romances that might appeal to her tastes rather than the book he normally received which were mainly were science, engineering and only the occasional novel.

OoooO

"So Loki," said the soft voice, "What are you doing here by yourself? You and Tony have a fight?"

Startled at the unwelcomed yet familiar voice, Loki hastily ordered his expression to something less devastated than he felt and lifted his head to see Natasha Romanoff pull out a chair at his table.

Since he had time to kill, Loki had carried his double bagged purchases, the boxes strapped together with fiberglass reinforced packing and a handle, four blocks away to a restaurant called the Coffee Shop at 29 Union Square West. At his request, the hostess seated him near a window so he could get wifi from the park across the street. It was due to close in an hour, but he was assured that they would get his order taken and severed with more than enough time to eat. Not that Loki was really hungry, but if ordering breakfast was the price he paid for brooding somewhere that wasn't Stark Tower, so be it.

"You know," said the casually dressed assassin, scooting her chair up to the table, "this place closes from five thirty am to six thirty for cleaning."

"Ah. Agent Romanoff." Loki drawled, outwardly bored and inwardly astonished at how bad his luck had been during this visit. "To what do I owe the honor of your company?" He placed his downloading e-reader on the table and leaned back in his chair steadily regarding his unwelcome visitor.

"I see you've been doing some retail therapy," she said pointing at his bags and boxes with a strange little smile. "You and Tony have a fight?"

Mask fully in place he answered her, "No Agent Romanoff, I have not fought with Tony. I wanted to get a few last minute presents for my mother."

"So where's Tony," she asked, grabbing his closed menu and pointing out her order to the waitress who had just approached the table. "And coffee, black."

Loki shook his head "Still asleep I imagine," he told her. "Pancakes, bacon, home fries, orange juice and water please," Loki said, looking up at the waitress with a perfectly distracting smile, eyes crinkled up in good humor.

"Right away," the woman said with a wide grin, before hurrying away, only to stop at the kitchen service hatch to peer back at him.

"So…" Romanoff tipped her head a bit, regarding him with slightly narrowed eyes. "You didn't have a fight with Tony, and he is currently sleeping. Neither of which are lies… You didn't look very happy in the store or while you were waiting here to order… Yet you felt a need to charm the waitress once I sat down… So what is wrong with his picture?"

"What is wrong is that my queue has finished downloading. Do you have an e-reader Agent Romanoff?"

"Yes."

Loki handed her the reader. "Then start downloading books and I will talk to you. Anything garden, historic, romantic or biographic that you think my mother might like." When she made no move to pick up the reader he continued. "Or I will continue to do it and ignore you."

That did it; Natasha picked up the reader and started tapping links. "You know, I've heard the food here is kind of hit or miss."

"I'm not hungry, so I don't really care." He told her pulling his purchases under the table so they wouldn't be in anyone's way. Natasha's eyes flicked up at him.

"So why are you out here, without a handler? What are you doing on Earth? Why shouldn't we just arrest you?"

Loki snickered blackly. "Go ahead and try Agent Romanoff. There is no one on earth right now who is more watched than I am. If I miss my curfew, the All Father himself will be down here within the hour to retrieve me. If I miss it through no fault of my own, then his not inconsiderate wrath will fall on someone beside myself."

Loki leaned forward and whispered to her in wicked glee, "Please. Arrest me. Take me back to your heli-carrier. Take me to a secure SWORD facility." He brushed a strand of his long inky black hair behind an ear. "Of course I personally wouldn't take me to any location you are… fond of. As I doubt very much it would escape without a great deal of damage."

"Ah, breakfast." He winked at the waitress as she sat down their breakfast. Taking a sip of his juice he nodded at Natasha, "I think your downloads are finished, you need to queue more books."

Natasha insisted on accompanying him back to Stark Tower. So instead of the cab he had planned on riding back in, he rode with her in a SWORD vehicle with two other agents in the front seat. Fortunately for Loki's mood, Jarvis refused to allow her or the agents out of the parking garage and sent the tower security personnel down in Stark's private elevator. They expertly pried Loki and his packages away from the agents. Stark had a habit of firing the ones who let SWORD do anything without a court order.

Loki thanked the agents, kissed Natasha's hand and finally made it unmolested into the elevator. The security guards only rode with him until they reached the first floor. Loki rode the rest of the way in silence, Jarvis scanning him and his belongings for listening devices.

Loki's spirits descended even as the elevator rose to his old floor.

OoooO

A short time after returning his wallet and watch to his old room, Loki entered Stark's bedroom silently. It had taken him a few minutes to talk Jarvis into letting him in, but finally the AI decided that the benefit to his master outweighed a general privacy order. Especially since Loki still had authorization to be anywhere in the tower he wanted to be, at any time he wanted to go there.

Holding his hand in readiness over her face, he gently shook the red head's shoulder. He had to do it two more times before she woke up with a slight start at the sight of a man standing over her. That it was not the man she had fucked before she fell asleep doubtless made it more bewildering. His hand ghosted over her lips in the low light of the bedroom and he whispered in her ear, "I do apologize, but you need to get up now."

"Quietly," he softly admonished her, averting his eyes politely and handing her a robe. He pointed to her clothes, purse and shoes neatly placed on the bench at the bottom of the bed. After she had gathered her belongings, Loki guided her to the door, "There is a powder room right beside the elevator. Turn left, you can't miss it. I've left the light on for you. Go down to the first floor, Security has been notified you are coming, they will pay for a cab to take you home."

Bewildered, but uncomplaining the robe clad woman started to exit the room, but then stopped in the doorway and looked up at him.

"Who are you?" She whispered nervously, lifting her free hand to try and detangle her wild, bed head hair.

"The boyfriend." He whispered back.

At her look of horror, Loki gifted her with a lopsided grin. "Trust me; you need to get out of here as quickly as possible. It might get very ugly, very soon."

She fled quietly down the hallway, her bare feet softly slapping on the marble flooring was the only noise she made.

Loki smiled faintly and quietly closed and locked the door.

OoooO

Tony was impatiently pacing in his living room when that incredibly bright light that was the hallmark of interstellar, or at least Asgardian travel flashed onto his terrace. His penthouse looked festive and welcoming and he had made sure that Pepper was in town and would be available in a couple of hours for dinner. A dinner that was not going to be 'take out' this year. Instead, the billionaire had a whole pack of chefs and their assistants down in the big industrial kitchen on his party floor beavering away on tonight's dinner. Additionally a famous dessert chef and his assistants were making dozens of different kinds of one-shot and mini desserts to appeal to the god of mischief's sweet tooth. Several of each so Pepper and Loki wouldn't fight over their favorites.

A freaking truck load of packages waited, already packed in large military equipment duffle bags by the terrace door. So many packages in fact that the minute he saw the lights descending, Tony shouldered two of them and staggered out to the scored landing site. He was going to send part of Loki's loot back with Heimdall, just to ease the logistics of transporting it. Not being anyone's fool of course, despite recent evidence to the contrary, the engineer had labeled the outside of the duffels to Frigga's attention. He doubted very much that anyone would interfere with items addressed to Asgard's queen.

Tony had everything planned to be the perfect apology.

Everything except for what to do when Heimdall appeared on the landing site with Thor instead of Loki.

**Chapter 1b – Completely and totally screwed**

Tony had seen the video recordings. Even heard what Loki had whispered to the redhead lying beside him, and yes Tony was well aware that high gain, high fidelity cameras were not normally a part of anyone else's security installation. Anyhow, Loki apparently had not intended to create a scene, in fact he didn't even try to wake Tony up at all.

All in all it should have been hilarious, her expression as she woke and was handed her clothes by a man she hadn't slept with, the deadpan way Loki had just whipped out the whole, 'I'm the boyfriend' statement and her taking off like a scared bunny, robe flapping behind her as she accelerated down the hallway. And doubtless it would have gone into Tony's favorite clip file if not for all the non-funny stuff that had followed.

After showing her out of the room, Loki had walked over to the bed, his unconcerned, slightly smug, Loki mask firmly in place. The god just stood there, looking down at the sleeping Tony for several minutes. While his expression was neutral enough, the slight slump of that normally straight back told Tony that his god-buddy was upset.

Eventually, Loki had given the faintest of sighs and gone over to sit on the now vacant side of the bed. After a moment…and a highly suspicious pass of his hand over his eyes, the trickster had taken Tony's wrist and placed a glowing disk and his palm over Frigga's rune. Loki just sat there with his head bowed while the mini light show of the rune recharging took place. After the light had dissipated, the god had gotten up, pocketing the spent stone. He then straightened up those wide shoulders of his and walked out of the room, eyes straight ahead.

Jarvis' cameras had followed him as he walked through the living room where he picked up his bags without looking at them and immediately walked to the BiFrost pad calling for Heimdall.

After a minute or two, the only evidence that the trickster had been on Midgard at all was the surveillance video of his footsteps slowly filling in with falling snow. Footsteps that had been gone by the time Tony had realized what had happened and raced out to the terrace in sweat pants and t-shirt and bare feet to look up at the cloud covered sky.

**Chapter 1c – Why are you here? **

When he had woken up that morning, Tony had not even realized there had been a problem. Yeah, his bed was empty. But there were plenty of women who decided to slip out early enough that they could get home in their evening wear with dignity. After all, very few people actually liked an early morning walk of shame. And it wasn't like Tony's reputation gave any of them hope that if they stuck around long enough, they might get a chance to be his one true love. Because he was Tony Stark and he was never going to hook up with a one night stand, no matter how good they looked.

So he had eventually rolled out of bed, enjoyed several minutes of after sex stretching, taken a shower, gotten dressed…as much as he ever dressed when he was just going to get a cup of coffee and strolled barefoot out to the living room.

"Morning Jarvis."

"Actually it is afternoon, sir," His AI replied in a slightly testy tone. "Agent Romanoff will be here in a little over an hour, she has left you several messages. Also, Ms. Potts would like you to call her as soon as possible.

Crap. While there may be a lot of things worse than an unexpected visit by Natasha, offhand Tony just couldn't think of any.

"I need a damn drink and I need my caffeine. I refuse to have an early morning, or even mid-afternoon visit with the red menace without at least one spiked coffee in me." Tony huffed stomping over to the bar and reaching under it for something to splash in his coffee.

In the place where he had last left the whiskey, there were several very odd bottles. For convenience, each lower shelf had a motion sensor activated light strip. So the second that Tony reached under the bar, he was able to get a really good look at those odd, other worldly bottles sitting where his scotch should have been, as well as a pile of t-shirts and some plush toys sitting beside them.

And that is when the Tony's day went from crap to completely and totally fucked.

Sliding to the floor because his legs wouldn't hold him, Tony crouched there burying his face in his hands.

"Javis," he croaked pitifully, "please, please, please tell me that Loki is still in the tower."

"Unfortunately sir, he was under his normal twelve hour time constraint and left at his usual time, six forty-five a.m." Jarvis replied in a severely disapproving voice before continuing. "I did try numerous times to contact you sir, and also tried to tell you when you arrived with your…companion." The AI paused a moment when Tony clutched his head in pain, but then continued relentlessly. "Unfortunately, you muted me and I was unable to say anything to you when you failed to notice all of the items you had laid out for him were gone."

_Okay, this was bad_.

"Ah...where was he when I got home?" Tony asked, not able to take his mental vision off the train wreck that was yesterday.

"Just on the other side of the terrace window sir, watching you exit the elevator."

_Yeah, it had been too much to hope that maybe he had been in the lab. _

"Please tell me he didn't sit out there all night waiting for his ride home," Tony begged, knowing that he was the worst friend and the most insensitive lover ever. Not that this should be anything unknown to him by now…but still, it's no wonder he never had an intimate relationship that lasted. Hell, even his second go round with Pepper had lasted less than a year before she couldn't take him again. And she was his best friend.

She always said it was the danger, but he bet it was that heaped on top of all the other crap Tony had made her put up with.

"No, sir. He went out."

"Christ." Tony breathed, rocking forward on his knees and grabbing the top of the bar for support.

"By himself? Out where, Jarvis?"

_One god damn day a year I need to be attentive and I can't even fucking manage that. Not even the whole god damn day either, just twelve fucking hours_, he told himself angrily. _I am lower than fucking pond-scum. _

"He had several locations in mind sir, I know he visited one of them, but I am not sure where he was after that." Javis said somewhat evasively.

"So where did he go?" Tony asked fighting the sick feeling that threatened to rise within him.

Deciding he had spent enough time on the floor behind bar, Tony grabbed a handy, but not other worldly bottle and pulled himself up, coffee forgotten he made his way to the couch as Jarvis continued.

"He spent at least two hours that I can be sure of in an electronics store, where he went other than that, I'm not sure. He must have been spending cash." Jarvis said reprovingly. Jarvis hated not being able to track people because they were spending cash. He often became quite snippy with Tony on those rare occasions when he used cash rather than one of his cards.

"So he didn't say where else he wanted to go?"

"Originally he was trying to decide between a bar or a whorehouse, finding an all-night electronics store was an afterthought. But I thought it best that he at least begin there, so I ordered a cab to deposit him at that address. He refused to take a cell phone so I was unable to keep better track of his locations."

Tony moaned closing his eyes in pain and let his head drop heavily on the back of the couch.

"Additionally, sir, before Mister Odinson would spend anything at the store, he asked me to total up the cost of all the items he had been provided with over the years and deduct that amount from his account to repay you. I have made a note of the incoming credit in your expense file."

If Jarvis had a body, Tony was pretty sure the AI would have slapped him in the back of the head by now.

And as if dealing with a disapproving Jarvis wasn't bad enough, afterwards he had to deal with the ladies. Tony was hard put to say which reaming was worse.

Knowing a lot of the back ground, including some of the intimate stuff, Pepper hit some points that were like knife thrusts to the gut. Natasha on the other hand, while she was not privy to as much inside information, made some disturbingly good guesses and was able to detail the absolute devastation she observed before Loki had known she was watching him. Tony's luck being the way it was, neither lady spared him any of their thoughts on how big an asshole they considered him. Worse still, this was apparently going to be a bellwether moment in his life. Now whenever Pepper thought Tony was being not as helpful as he could have been she had taken to muttering stuff along the lines of 'He can't even get it together once a year, what was **_I_** expecting?'

OoooO

While Tony continued to receive his 'Queen Frigga Facilitated' monthly communications from Loki, they were all now project related. The only one he'd received all year that hadn't concerned the project was a short hand written note from Loki to let Tony know what day his rune would be renewed.

Jumping on news of Loki impending visit, like a starving cat on a discarded fish head, Tony had an entire evening planned. Groveling. Catered dinner. Groveling. Scrumptious deserts. Groveling. Bribes, err… Rather say presents not bribes. After all that he figured he would wind up the evening with just a bit more groveling. When Pepper pointed out that he had never gone to quite this much trouble when she was mad at him, Tony informed her that he hadn't needed quite the same full court press with her since she never vanished off the face of the Earth twelve hours later.

The penthouse was decorated for the 'Yule Holiday' to the hilt and if he said so himself, it looked incredible. Tony and Jarvis had checked all the preparations several times and everything was set to go off without a hitch…

Until Thor showed up instead of Loki.

OoooO

Tony was devastated.

Thor.

Tony didn't want to see Thor, he wanted to see Loki.

The billionaire had worried that this year's visit might be awkward, but he hadn't imagined that Loki would miss it all together.

"Hey Thor…ummm, where's Loki? Is he coming later?" Tony asked, heart sinking at the improbability of that happening. "Please take these to the queen, Goldie," He handed the duffle bags off to the surprised Heimdall with barely a glance in his direction.

"Friend Tony, I can take those back with me when I leave." Thor reached out his hands to grab the duffle bag straps, but Tony slapped his them away.

"Leave it, big guy, there's a ton of other stuff that needs to be taken back, let the shiny dude take these to your mom. It will be two bags we don't have to worry about later." Practically pushing the bags at the freakishly large Asgardian, Tony took a deep breath and tried to shove down his panic before addressing the large blonde god in front of him.

"Thor," Tony almost whined. "Where's Loki?"

"Thank you, Heimdall, please make sure those make it to the queen safely." Thor said, sparing the watcher only a briefest glance before grabbing Tony's upper arm and pulling the unresisting engineer towards the penthouse doors.

Once they had threaded through the various duffle bags just inside the terrace doors, Thor allowed Tony to shake off his grip. Leaning his hammer against the wall, and dropping the two duffle bags he had brought from Asgard, the god walked over and dropped onto the nearest sofa. He looked up at the ceiling for several long moments, obviously marshaling his thoughts before shifting his gaze to the scowling inventor who was standing cross armed in front of him.

"Where. Is. Loki?"

Thor rubbed a tired hand over his face. "Tony, please give me your arm and then I will explain everything." He request in a low weary voice, reaching out for Tony's right hand.

Glaring at muscle bound blonde, Tony thrust his right hand forward peevishly. Thor briefly examined the faded rune, before placing his hand, with one of Queen Frigga's disks over it to recharge the mark.

"Just for your information my friend, you should know this does not always have to be done every year. The protections will last as long as the rune is visible. The darker the rune, the more power is available to ward off aging, injuries or illness."

"Don't care, Thor. Where's your brother?" Tony demanded flatly.

Releasing the genius' hand, Thor looked sadly up at him and asked beseechingly. "I know you and Loki are still writing back and forth monthly. Did he say nothing of the deal he made with Odin last year right after he returned?"

Tony's heart sank thinking about the many deals Odin had offered the trickster. _Please not marriage; please not a ban from Midgard. Please! _

"Ah. No. He's only been discussing business with me. I was kind of bastard last year, and your brother, rightfully so, is pretty miffed with me."

"Oh. Perhaps that is why." Thor muttered slowly, his frown deepening. "Last year, shortly after he returned from his trip he told the All Father he would accept a return of some of his magic, in exchange for not taking this year's trip to Midgard."

"Oh." Tony said in a small voice.

Thor's smile was rueful, "My brother is quite the bargainer, he stipulated that his magic be returned that very day. He regained his abilities to do scrying, so he could check on progress at the work site or any of the material suppliers even if he was in the library or otherwise occupied. Of course the All Father wished him to wait until his next trip was scheduled for this ability to be returned, but Loki told him if he had to wait a year, he'd take the trip. So father relented."

Thor gave a sad chuckle. "I think many of the things that Loki does; Midgard, battle dance, avoiding the feasts, refusing a rich wife, not speaking to anyone…I think they are perhaps done to aggravate father and give him an incentive to bribe Loki to quit doing them."

"Yeah, well your bro is the tricky one that way."

_But not Midgard._

We aren't a contrived irritation, Loki really likes coming here, Loki didn't want to leave. He wants to return here, to… Us… Tony told himself stoutly, but unable to keep a tiny thrill of doubt from running down his spine. Trickster god after all. Maybe he set up his reluctance to leave and his insistence on returning up as part of a long con on Odin. Or Tony.

But Tony really, really didn't even want to consider that. He needed to think of something else.

"Bribes? But Loki's a prince, he doesn't need a rich-" Tony tried to say with certainly, only to be interrupted by Thor.

"No... My friend, Loki no longer has estates. His original…Transgression my mother calls it, was deemed treason and his properties and valuables were confiscated to the crown. He has no personal revenues."

"Oh." Tony's heart sank. He recalled the simple clothes that Loki had taken to wearing once he returned to Asgard. The god had claimed he preferred less fussy clothes now. But what if those were the only things he had to wear? A possibility that was more than likely and something Tony should have considered earlier if he had bothered to use his supposedly genius brain. After all it had surprised Tony to see the Trickster actually wearing an Avenger's sweatshirt during one of his previous visits. Factoring in Loki's previous distain for Earthgardian causal wear and the god's own preference and delight in fine clothing indicated clearly that, genius or not… Tony was an idiot for not making the connection.

"Everything, Thor?" He asked in a small voice. "So where does he get the money to live? Do they pay him for his work on the BiFrost?"

"No, Tony, he is a prisoner working on a task for Asgard. Mother tried to provide him with a stipend out of her personal funds, but Loki refused. He did not want to get her in anymore trouble with father. The only exception is that he has asked her to purchase various items for you." Thor pointed to the two duffle bags he had brought. "Technically those items are listed on her expense accounts as retainer payments for you as her personal servitor." The Thunderer sighed distractedly tracing the seam where a leather inset joined the cloth of his trousers. He looked up at the very distressed Tony. "Due to safety concerns he lives in his old rooms and is of course provided with the same clothing, personal care items and food that the servants receive. With the exception of proper garb on those rare times he is bidden to attend dinner with the court. Mother had been forbidden to supply him with anything else. He is after all no longer a prince, but rather a crown prisoner."

OoooO

**Chapter 1d Introspection and Ice packs**

Somehow, and he wasn't exactly sure how he managed to do it, Tony had convinced Thor that it would be a shame not to see Jane while he was on Earth. Jarvis, bless his circuits, had only taken ten minutes to contact Jane, set up a date for her and Pikachu and get a Boston based helicopter in the air to snatch her up from the grounds of MIT.

It wasn't like Tony had any appetite right now, so someone ought to benefit from all the awesome arrangements he had made. A little part of him hoped that maybe Thor would be impressed and tell Loki about all of the trouble that Tony had gone through in order to apologize to the dark haired god. Additionally, it kept Thor close at hand so Tony could talk to him again before he was zapped back up to fairy land.

Which left them all here; Thunder Pants was down on the party floor, no doubt bothering the crap out of the chefs. Jane was scheduled to be delivered to the Tower's landing pad in just over an hour for a romantic gourmet dinner and possibly a night of whoopee in one of the guest rooms with Thor. And Tony desperately trying to think through a killer stress headache while slumped at the kitchen table shifting an ice pack from one temple to the other.

_Trying being the key word in that whole thought. Come on Stark, _he berated himself_, you're a fucking genius, so genius your skank cheating ass out of this one. _

Even though Tony was a genius and an Olympic caliber, **second to none** bull-shitter who could pretty much talk or figure his way out of anything given time and opportunity… The problem was… This problem being…

Tony wiped his eyes on the damp terrycloth sleeve covering his half-melted ice pack. Not because he was tearing up or anything, but more because his eyes were suddenly burning and the cool dampness felt good.

_Fuck it. _

The problem was that there was no damn way for him to talk with Loki. Oh hell yeah he could talk _at_ him, but he couldn't talk _to_ him. Fuck knows he'd tried, but not one of the messages of a personal nature that he'd sent to Asgard during the last year had been responded to in any way. Hell he was pretty sure Loki hadn't even listened to most of them. After four months of no replies from Loki other than those pertaining to their various projects, Tony had started mixing the answers to Loki's project questions with numerous personal messages in the voice, video and data files he sent to Asgard. Loki had never answered any of them and merely restated his own in the Q&amp;A file that they passed back and forth. By the sixth month Tony had started leaving apologies in that file. At first they were simply deleted and when he tried copy protecting them so that Loki couldn't delete them the god created another file and everything, except for them, had been copied over to it.

The worst thing was that in the last seven years that Loki has been on Asgard Tony, had mostly gotten out of the habit of listening to music while he worked. Prior to his being an ass, every month Tony had gotten thirty personal recordings that the god had made for him. Additionally during the day, Loki would often turn on a hidden microphone. The god would then occasionally rant about something project related that was making his life difficult, or tell Tony something that had occurred to him that they might want to think about. However most of the time Loki would softly explain what he was doing; verbalizing all of his actions or thoughts on whatever task he was currently working on. Occasionally Loki would reference a file name so Jarvis could integrate a picture or short video into their official project transcript while popping it up on a screen for Tony to look at. Who knew what Loki's guards and workers thought about him constantly mumbling or occasionally doing whatever it was he did to hide the fact that he was taking a picture or short video.

Listening to Loki's work recordings had been like a soothing but extremely thought provoking Asgardian version of NPR's _'All things Considered'_. Every evening before he went to sleep for the night Loki made him a video, usually running for between thirty minutes and an hour. It was like a Denis Leary version of the Prairie Home Companion meets Ted Talks. Snark, basic news, storytelling and tech talk all done in that sinfully delicious accent of Loki's. While Fury would kill for some of the stuff that Loki was sharing about what was going on in Asgard and the other Realms, Tony just liked listening to the god's take on what was going on around him and as a visual reference of how Loki was looking and feeling that particular day.

However, now he didn't get any kind of additional comments. Furthermore, for the past year even Loki's work sessions recordings were short, concise, to the point and completely project related, not even background speculation on various theory's. The more personal, recorded evening chats, with a visual of the god? Those had stopped completely. That was why Tony had been so excited that there was finally a note from Loki that wasn't project related. Admittedly it hadn't been much of a note, just a notification that Tony's rune renewal would take place as scheduled and that a date had been set for it to happen.

Tony had figured he was in for an evening of major begging and apologies on his part and frankly a lot of justified screaming on Loki's. Hence all the presents and the scrumptious dinner and dessert plans. Tony figured he would intersperse bribes, which Loki was always open too, with heartfelt begging for forgiveness. One of the two had been bound to work. He never figured that Loki would be so mad that he would stop coming completely and send Thor instead.

"Sir, Ms Potts wishes to know what time she is expected for dinner." Groaning Tony slumped over his kitchen table and buried his head in his arms. He had promised Pep a great dinner this evening.

Tipping his face sideways, so he wasn't talking into his ice pack Tony started issuing instructions. His voice was washed out and watery.

"Jarvis, ask the chefs when dinner is going to be ready and have them plate two meals and for Minon to bring up here. Make sure they also send up several desserts that Pepper would like. Chocolate ones for sure, maybe if we get enough chocolate in her she won't kill me. Let her know there was a change in plans, but tell her I really need to talk to her. Time it so that Pep and dinner arrives at the same time. Let her in when it gets here and give me a five minutes heads up before she arrives."

**Chapter 1e - Let's make a deal Asgard Style**

As private retreats went, this one was a pretty good one. The theme was all stone and gold, like every room he had seen so far while here, but the woven hangings and tapestries softened it up quite a bit, and added a nice touch of color.

"Starkson, I received your message and thought it best for you to come talk with me in person."

Frigga was sitting in, what on Earth would be called a throne; here apparently it was just some place for the queen to rest her hiney while talking to guests. But as large and ornate as it was, Frigga owned the damn thing. But then he supposed it wasn't like she would have a floral wingback or a rocking recliner or anything in her private audience chamber.

"Please, call me Tony," he told her yet again. "After all we're almost family; or rather we will be if we can iron out a few details." Tony gave her an endearing smile.

She looked at both of them a moment. "I admit I was not expecting you to bring your consort to this meeting."

"Old news your Majesty. Ms. Potts is the CEO of my company, we are no longer consorting."

"Anthony!" Pepper hissed giving his blue suit jacket an admonitory tug. "Be serious."

"Ah, your union has been legally dissolved?" Frigga's eyes shifted back and forth between the two of them, watching intently.

"Actually your Majesty, we never finalized it."

Frigga sat back in her throne with a low, 'Hummmm'.

"So what exactly are you proposing Stark- Tony, I have your document, but I would hear it in your own words."

"I am proposing an alliance between my house and yours." He smiled at the queen with his most winning Tony Stark smile.

The smile he only pulled out when he was in real trouble with Pepper.

"A union without the possibility of producing an heir is not legal in Asgard."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that Loki can shape shift into a female at any given time, huh? I mean if he can bear a horse, shifting so that he can bear a mortal child should be no trouble for him… or her… at all."

She frowned, "Loki is a shape shifter and can become female of course, but he can also shift to his natural state which is both. It is a Jotun trait that carried over. It was once not unheard of even in Æsir Seiðr masters who were male."

"So yay. Two ways that he could have a kid…" Tony hastily corrected himself after a puzzled look flitted across the queen's face, "I mean child. He has ability to have a child. Not that he has to, or I want him to, just that he can fulfill the Asgardian legal requirement to allow the union. So it's all good."

"Why? Why are you proposing this alliance? What makes you think the All Father will entertain your suit?" Frigga fixed Tony will a gimlet stare. "And fond as I am of you Anthony Stark, what makes you think I will support your cause?"

Tony smirked. "I think I can come up with a few advantages that might interest Loki-dad. As for your support…. Oh, I don't know, perhaps because I have a proven track record of keeping your baby boy safe, even from himself… Also from the stories he's told me over the years, with only the occasional minor hiccup-"

A strangled cough interrupted him.

"Shut it Pep. As I was saying, Loki had told me that he's been happier with seeing me even only once a year than with any other Asgardian he's interacted with in the last few centuries. Family aside I'm sure."

Frigga voice was incredulous. "Minor hiccup?"

"Okay fine, the last one was a doozy, but I'll do anything to fix that. Including hauling my ass to another realm and pledging a complete life style change to try to make things right."

OoooO

Despite the over the top tackiness of Asgard in general, the throne room is impressive. And in the several minutes that Odin has been staring at him, totally distracting. Pepper nudged Tony back to full awareness as Odin broke the silence.

"Why should I believe that you are the best person for Asgard to form an alliance between us and Midgard by way of Loki becoming allied with your house?" Odin asked, sitting on his huge big gold, oh so very gold throne, looking down his nose like every petty dictator in every Grade-B sci-fi movie ever made. It was the robe that did it. Seriously whoever thought that was a good look on an old dude? It was like an elaborately embroidered nightshirt with armour over the chest. It just didn't work. Honestly, you almost expected the guy to be wearing a pair of wicked good slippers from L.L. Bean.

Apparently big daddy Odin was still pissed that Tony had been Frigga's go to guy when Asgard had their little prison abuse problem. Or maybe Od-meister was still bent because Tony was the reason that Loki was rocking some serious Tech-Magic these days.

_Tech stuff that is so old school as far as Asgard is concerned that Old One Eye couldn't ever hope to understand_, he thought smugly.

Tony, Pepper, Odin, Frigga, Thor and a surprised-slash-distraught Loki were all in the throne room. They were alone, now that the guards that normally stood at the foot of the throne had been temporarily banished to the hallway.

"Maybe because I don't want to join with your son, I want to ally myself with your wife's daughter." Tony rolled his eyes a bit at the grimace Odin was throwing down at him. "Okay… daughter for a certain value of the word as it applies to Loki here."

"And what makes you think we would agree to this? Loki's union with a mortal?"

"I don't see why you wouldn't; you're all but advertising him for sale to the highest bidder." Tony snapped, managing not to flinch at the reaction his word received.

Which was far from easy with the ominous rumble of Thor's thunder overhead, the harsh objections of two of the biggest fucking ravens Tony has ever seen, not to mention Loki's growl and flesh stripping glare.

Refusing to be cowed Tony's voice was slow and hard, "I am Tony Stark, I **_will not_** be out bid. Especially not by a couple of two bit princesses with no power at all, even in their own families, let alone their realms. Ladies you can't even get him to agree to court in the first place, I might add."

"And what makes you think he will be any more receptive towards your suit?" Odin asked, annoyed but curious.

"How about because he already is," Tony told the king with a confident smile.

"Was. As in past tense," Loki said frostily.

Odin pinned the darker prince with a stare. "Loki, I will ask for your input when I want it." Odin ignored the temper that flared in the younger prince's furious green eyes, continuing in the same implacable tone, "Until then, you will remain silent. Do you understand?"

"Do you, All Father. understand that I am not a brood mare to be sold to whoever wants to upgrade their family stock?"

Pepper and Odin both were vying for who had the most heartfelt sigh of exasperation.

_Well there was no doubt in he's still majorly peeved at me,_ Tony thought, knowing in his heart that this was going to get ugly before it was all finished.

"My lady, I would suggest that you and the princes retire to your private hall. I would have a private discussion with this petitioner." He glanced over at Tony, "Would you like the Lady Potts to stay with them also?"

Tony laughed, "Oh hell no. Lady Potts is my chief advisor; I think she needs to stay with me. Besides she had documents I think you would want to see."

OoooO

It had taken several minutes to extricate themselves from the protesting Frigga and Loki. Thor was no help at all there, since his mother ignored the Thunderer and continued to argue in an undertone with Odin and Thor's efforts to calm his brother had pretty much the opposite effect. Finally, Odin had simply beckoned them to follow him, walked to a door near the rear of the throne and waved them through shutting it firmly on the other three.

Odin of course sat at the head of the small conference table with Tony on his left and Pepper sitting right beside Tony. Leaning back, his chair looking much more comfortable than Tony's chair, Odin calmly asked, "Why?"

"Why not?" Tony shot back. "Hey. I understand that you might not appreciate it, which is really good because if you did that would be more than creepy, but Loki is a really decorative kinda guy." Shaking his head at the disbelief in Odin's eye, he continued. "Maybe not here, where muscle bound blondes seem to be in vogue. But he has that whole Metrosexual slash Rock of Ages thing going on for him." Tony paused as if pondering something important and then said contemplatively, "With maybe just a touch of your more dangerous goth."

And that is the part Tony really like. The dangerous part, not the goth, although if anyone could rock the goth black makeup and clothes, it would be his Loki.

"I couldn't get any traction with him while he was imprisoned on Ear-, Midgard, which makes sense, because technically I was his jailer. So that was just not flying for him, and quite honestly I perfectly understood." He flashed Odin a toothy grin, "But afterwards we got along quite well… And since you guys are looking to unload the cost of caring and feeding one princely prisoner. To be specific your younger prince who is already considered to be egri for being a master of magic… I figured we could make a deal. I'm looking for a magic using asset for my company. Loki already has proven value as a researcher and is pretty damn hot to look at, which is a bonus as far as I am concerned."

Odin raised his hand, index finger tapping his lips. Since he knew he was babbling, and that was a pretty clear instruction to hush, Tony decided to see what his Odin-ness wanted to say.

"This isn't just about money."

"Of course not," Tony grinned nastily, "That's just something you're tossing in to try to get Loki to agree with your plans. It's really about you keeping control of an asset. You want to find some leverage on your youngest that won't end up with you sleeping on the couch because you've got mommy upset about how her baby boy is being treated.

Tony had spent years letting Fury's moods roll off of him, so the evil look that Odin was currently tossing his way was not really enough to slow him down.

Although he did make a mental note not to mention Frigga anymore, if he can at all avoid it.

Sensing that Tony was treading on thin ice, Pepper pulled out a sheaf of papers denoting what Tony had already sent to Asgard as surety for his proposal and passed it to Odin.

Odin paused a moment, the brick color fading during the time it took him to read Pepper's proposal. When he was finished, he was once again wearing his calm and impassive 'King of Kings' expression.

After nudging Tony warningly, Pepper passed two other folders over to the king. One was a partial review of Tony's personal net worth. Partial, because even that was impressive and Pepper believed in never giving anyone the full story on that if she could avoid it. The other was a rundown of the assets Tony had in place already that could prevent the god of mischief from getting himself and Asgard by extension into any more trouble when he was on Midgard.

"How is this even necessary?" Odin asked, tapping the second folder. "His currently abilities should not require such precautions to be in place."

"Hey, I'm willing to pay full price, but I want the whole magic package." Tony said firmly. "Besides, it will sweeten Loki on the deal. Heck you can even take credit for it. Tell him it's a betrothal gift or some damn thing."

Seeing that Odin was looking less thoughtful than he had been a few minutes ago, Tony decided to sweeten the deal for him too.

"Look, there has to be some damn rune or something I could use to track him if he decides to take a jaunt yes? And Frigga certainly couldn't object too much if I agreed to a tracking rune to make Earthgardian officials more comfortable with him being back on earth."

They sat there in silence several long minutes, Odin's hands resting on the dark glossy wood of the table while he pondered.

"One other thing, I can offer," Tony said quietly. "I already know that being Yotim doesn't automatically translate to shape shifter." Odin started almost imperceptibly.

"Apparently Loki is both. Unlike the other contenders I don't care that he is a Yotim. Also you don't have to worry that I'll ever tell anyone or make a fuss about it at a later date if the news ever gets out. I understand that this little tidbit of information would be a total deal breaker for the other contenders and their families. Even if they found out about the whole Yotim thing after the fact and not just because it means that Loki's adopted and not _really_ part of the royal family.

Tony raised both hands placatingly at the fury sliding across Odin's face. "But I don't care about the adoption thing either. In fact I think you need to tell him about both soon in order to avoid a repeat of what happened last time when he found out by accident. And I promise to get him as much help as I can to be okay with that."

"Earth has lots of Doctor's, err… Healers trained to help people to learn to accept emotional problems like being adopted and other... things in a healthy way." Pepper trailed off when Odin swung his head her way.

Looking pained, Odin's voice rumbled as if coming from a long way away, "What do you know about the Jötnar Son of Stark?"

Tony looked at Pepper, knowing she was also remembering that conversation. She exchanged a quick glance with him and then she shrugged and looked back at Odin, "Loki's one and he doesn't know it anymore, but it is apparently horrible enough to him that when he originally found out he went crazy and tried to kill his brother. His rather unusual gender comes from that heritage, but other Asgardian magic users in the past have also had the same condition due to their Yotim ancestors. And for some reason Loki and Thor both sometimes use it as a swear word," Pepper recited, as if reading from an internal list.

"You forgot, Loki tried to blow up their country when he found out," Tony reminded her. "So apparently something about them makes him bat-shit crazy."

"It is pronounced Jotun, Anthony Stark. Many powerful seiðmenn originally came from Jotunheim, if their realm was not so harsh, requiring all their attention, they would most likely rule many of the nine realms. Loki however is only half Jotun, his mother Fárbauti, while not of the highest ranking Æsir, was a very gifted seiðr user."

Odin pulled a smirk that was pure Fury. It must be the one eye thing that made Odin look like a pasty faced Fury with hair. "Jotun's are normally blue skinned with solid red eyes and ten foot tall. Loki inherited the blue skin and the red eyes, but his size favored his mother.

"Really? So where did the black hair and green eyes come from? Not that there is anything wrong with those." Tony asked curiously, not that Tony didn't think they looked more than fine on the mischief maker. "We can't all have blonde hair and blue eyes you know."

His eye bored into Tony's, "Those are not Loki's birth features, rather a combination of his personal seiðr and his maternal inheritance. However as long as his partner does not have any Jotun at all in their ancestry, Loki's children are unlikely to have a Jotun appearance." He looked at Tony with a very calculating look, as if considering something about Tony's one hundred percent mortal ancestry that had just brought itself to his attention. "Tell me Starkson, how do you feel about having children?"

_Funny he and Pepper had had just this same conversation a few days ago. "Fuck it Pepper, they don't care about him marrying some foreign princess. They just want him to have a handle they can grab to hold in case he starts to cause trouble or decides to leave when his sentence is finished."_

_"And you Tony? Do you want to be that leverage for Asgard? What about heirs? Don't you think you might like to be a father someday?" _

_"Why? And fuck up some kid, like my father fucked me up? Like his did to him? Besides if I'm going to live for hundreds of years, why do I need an heir? And if I do, well, he's had kids before. Our smarts and our looks, our kids would be gods."_

_"So that's what you want Tony?" Pepper asked sourly, "to be the father of a god?" _

_Tony froze. How did he feel about having kids? He didn't even want to think about them, he had been very careful his whole life in order to avoid having them. He had even managed to train himself to be sure he was protected against having any, even when he was blind drunk and unable to walk. _

"Mister Stark's board of directors have been pressing him for some years about a succession plan due to his lack of heirs." Pepper offered quickly, glancing briefly at Tony and widening her eyes slightly in warning before turning her attention back to the elder god.

"Stark International has facilities in all of the major countries in our world and makes a profit of over twenty billion dollars a year, we have several thousand employees. As Mister Stark owns more than half of the company and is its chief innovator, it is extremely important that we have a worthy successor. And to ensure our continued survival we need Mister Stark to have time to properly train his heirs and provide us with an orderly transfer of power to them. While still of course being around to assist or advise as necessary."

"What she said," Tony said, trying not to look like a deer in the headlights.

"So you are planning on having heirs soon?"

"Errrr…"

Odin was watching him with an intense concentration, trying to, but hopefully not succeeding in divining Tony's inner thoughts.

"Ah… That depends. I don't want just any heir, my father was a genius, I'm a genius, I want my heir to be a genius. Now Loki is also a genius and I might add smoking hot… Coupled with my handsome face and together we should have some seriously gorgeous, scary smart kids. I could live with that.

_Okay…_ Tony did and didn't like that weird assed light that was shining now in Odin's eye. That, '_All my plans are coming together'_ kind of gleam. This had to be bullshit, since there was no way Odin could have known he would do something as stupid as propose marriag… An _alliance_ with Loki. Hell he didn't even know thar he was going to do it at first.

On the other hand, Tony had seen that look many, many times when a deal was close to being stuck. It was a _'Let's see how far I can push'_ look. Apparently Odin was now very interested. So unless Tony was seriously misreading the Space Viking King, it would be Tony's deal to lose.

TBC

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This is a continuation of Queens Grace which became so long I was losing my mind and my place when even opening up the file.

**TRIGGER WARNINGS** – There will be references to Male on Male sex. If this is a problem for you please don't read it.

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Beta'd by the most wonderful** Mima Mia and Reindeer Games 19**. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

**If you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful.**

They all help the story placement on the search engine. Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

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I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	2. Chapter 2-How is this my life

**Chapter Summary** \- After housing the God of Mischief in his tower for several years Loki is recalled to Asgard. This leaves Tony minus a lab partner, wingman and buddy to snark with on Movie Night. Pepper has moved to the west coast and married, SHIELD is doing some crazy shit. With the exception of occasionally seeing Bruce, Tony doesn't have much interaction with his former team mates. He wonders how it is possible to feel so lonely in a city so full of people. He's and engineer, he decides to fix this. - Sequel to Queens Grace. You do not have to have read Queens Grace to follow this.

Starting premise - Loki has was recalled to Asgard after several years of being a prisoner in Stark Tower as a favor to Queen Frigga when Asgard proved to be too dangerous to his now mortal and memory altered self. After his recall, Loki and Tony started a long distance friends with benefits relationship that takes place on Loki's yearly reward visit to Midgard.

**TRIGGER WARNINGS IN END NOTES PLEASE READ IF YOU MIGHT HAVE A PROMBLEM WITH CERTAIN SUBJECT MATTER. **

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**Summary -** Loki reflects on his present situation and what Starks arrival might mean to him.

**Comment Challenge - **If we can get ten comments, I'll stop what I am doing and do a next day post of Chapter 3.

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Please visit me on tumblr RenneMichaels you'll see my Snowflake Avatar

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**Chapter 2 - The Deal Part 1 - How is this my life?**

How was this his life? Loki wondered miserably.

The god's late afternoon headache was already throbbing against his temples, despite not being due for several more hours. Sitting on the bottom step leading up to the throne, Loki's eyes drifted several steps up to the first tier to where he used to stand with Thor and his mother in better days. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say _'in former days'_, since even then very few of his days could actually be classed as better exactly. Many had been boring, some had been happy, but quite a few had been teeth grindingly aggravating for one reason or another. Resolutely Loki turned his gaze away.

It had taken twenty minutes of solidly ignoring his mother and Thor before they had left Loki to his thoughts and stepped away to argue amongst themselves. Not that he could imagine what Thor was arguing about. Although if he had to guess, Loki imagined that Thor was incensed over the news that Loki and Stark's former relationship was quite a bit more than friendship. With extra emphasis on former as far as Loki was concerned. Not that Loki particularly worried about what Thor thought; he was more concerned with trying to figure out what Stark's end game was in this insane idea of his. What Loki found all the more worrying, was the fact that Odin would even tolerate the suggestion enough to even begin negotiations. As a rule in general Odin did not like surprises, and in particular he did not much care for the mortals, for all he claimed in the past to be their realm's protector.

Mortal equations aside, alliances such as the one Stark had proposed had taken place on rare occasions, but normally it was not done for anything less than ending a war or major blood feud. It was a solution only considered when the conflict had so decimated the families that absolutely no eligible ranking females were available. In those instances the houses were merged and they paid heavily for an equally ranked shared consort who bore and raised children from each house. The trio raised children eventually becoming the heirs of the opposing house and the heir's children marrying to bring the original bloodline back to the house. Which definitely insure that there would be no more conflicts between the houses if they wanted their bloodline to survive.

The other almost unheard of occurrence was when such an alliance was imposed by a higher power as a punishment because an inter-house conflict had been so bitter that it was decided that the heads of the warring houses were the ones directly responsible for ending it. The major punishment part being that each party was required to produce an heir for the other house of their own body. This normally required the aid of some very powerful Mages. Needless to say very little was heard from either of the warring factions for many centuries after that. The threat of having such an alliance imposed had surely been responsible for ending many a feud before it escalated too far.

Yet Stark was proposing such a joining voluntarily, obviously not knowing how unusual that was in Asgard. Or, Loki thought wryly, more likely not caring.

"Loki darling, why don't you and Thor join me in my garden?" Frigga suggested, heading back over to where he sat, Thor trailing behind her with a chastised expression.

"No thank you mother."

Loki stood, smoothing his plain tunic and adjusting the worn green belt wrapped around his waist. The belt had been dropped and left behind when the clothes of his former life were removed by court order and was the only thing he had to wear that wasn't the faded black or dark grey that non-livery servants wore.

"I think it best if I return to the work site Mother. I wasn't planning on being absent this afternoon so I don't have extra assignment set up to keep the crews busy when they've finished their initial work orders." Besides which, Loki decided that he would be better off working on the BiFrost. If nothing else it would distract him from useless speculation of what might be happening in the All Father's inner chamber. "Besides, I have a full charge on the arc reactor rig and there is no sense wasting it."

Gathering his guards at the door, Loki bade his mother and brother goodbye, deftly ignoring suggestions that they would see him later that evening in the main dining hall. Because if he had any say so in the matter, they wouldn't.

While Loki was constantly refining the runes he used and the power attachment configurations, the crystal still grew too slowly to suit him. Granted it grew many times faster than when he first started, but still much slower than he was happy with. Now if he could have used the Tesseract or the Casket of Ancient Winters as his power source then maybe he would have been able to make some real progress. After all any power source powerful enough to allow Heimdall to mimic the powers of the BiFrost or create an ice age for an entire planet had to be extremely powerful.

However judging by the fit Odin threw the one time he mentioned his research into using either artifact to speed up the repair, neither of them was ever going to be a viable or rather 'allowable' alternative. The only reason he was able to use the arc reactor rig was that he had done so without mentioning it beforehand. Plus since the rig didn't really belong to Loki, but rather one of Frigga's servitors, Odin couldn't declare it forfeit to the crown, much though the elder god wished he could.

And if absolutely none of the computers or programs that Loki used to re-design and manage the BiFrost project were compatible or even readable by the Æsir systems… Well that was just a happy coincidence as far as Loki was concerned and quite frankly suited him to the nth degree. Odin couldn't confiscate Loki's Midgardian computational setup since it also was listed as belonging to Queen Frigga's Midgardian servitor, Stark. Granted using the more primitive earth computers took longer, since he had to manually transfer all the information he needed from the Æsir system into his frankly outdated Midgardian tech, but Loki considered it well worth the extra time. The Earther programs Loki had to use were a more cumbersome than their Æsir equivalents would have been, but in the end it was all well worth it to keep his solutions private.

Still, as Loki sat there at his portable desk, going over task lists, design approvals and his workflow tables, he couldn't help but think that even without the Tesseract, how much easier this would be to do if he could bring his damn laptop to the job site. But apparently that would be one change too many and beside Odin most likely didn't want the word to get out that none of the design work was being done and saved to Asgard's giant data banks. No matter how much it upset Odin.

After taking a moment to bask in the satisfaction of that thought, Loki took a deep settling breath before he returned to the job at hand. Much to the chagrin of the dwarfs and the Æsir construction crews, he was not allowing them to build in a linear fashion. The old way of 'When this is done, we start that' was inefficient. During what would have otherwise been down time between building supports, rather than wasting time standing around admiring their work and boasting about it, Loki had them instead building sections of the transfer room. By the time the bridge was long enough to build that final support the god wanted the transfer room complete, its sections ready for final assemble. Yes there would have to be some last minute adjustments to the structure, but it would still be quicker to prebuild it.

_Even if he could have used a bit of downtime himself. _

Listening intently as he made notes on his drawings and lists, Loki became aware of a slight burr in the tone of the growing crystal. Beckoning for the young Æsir construction runner who was waiting by one of his guards, he handed off a list of approved tasks. Rising slowly, so as not to exacerbate his headache, Loki went and painstakingly tuned the crystal array until the tones were again pure.

The overall harmony of the bridge was something the other mages had inexplicably not factored into their construction considerations at all. For reason Loki was frankly at a loss to explain. Before they were even allowed passed the first pair of supports, Asgard's horses had to be trained to ignore the glissando their hoofs caused when they ran upon it. The damn bridge sang such eerily pure notes when walked upon that it had frequently caused the hair on the back of Loki's neck to stand out. He knows he couldn't have been the only one who experienced that phenomenon. Loki had always privately felt that a large part of the exhilaration experienced from traveling via the Bi-Frost was partially due to the almost over-whelming sensation of traversing the bridge's crystal structure itself. It was an exciting sensation… In every sense of the word. Loki remembered from his youngling days when he, Thor and the other pages had made it a habit to take a willing maiden with then when running out to Heimdall to pick up or deliver a parcel. Deliveries of course being much more fun since you were free to take advantage of the resulting sensations as soon as you returned from the bridge.

Shaking his head ruefully at the memory, Loki immediately regretted it. Pain blossomed behind his eyes at the abrupt movement. Trying to ignore the hot painful melting feeling inside his skull, Loki wrenched his thoughts back to the clear, almost soothing notes the crystal made as it grew. His first real breakthrough on understanding the BiFrost had been the realization that if the crystal was not in absolute harmony it would grow so slowly it took several weeks for the growth to be measurable. Not that Loki was happy with the inch or so of length per day he managed to generate now. But it had been so much worse when he started. When he first started the rate of growth was so slow he'd calculated that it could possibly take hundreds of years to finish. He frankly thanked the Norns that he had the ability to hear discern the off pitch notes, because without it he would have had to depend on someone else's perceptions and diligence and might never have been able to get the Muspelheim be-damned thing re-built.

Perhaps this was the one good thing about his puzzling attack on New York. If it hadn't been for the carrying case they had built to move the Tesseract it would have taken much longer to develop a mechanism to recharge the mini arc reactor he was using to power the crystal's growth. Of course Stark and his lab's capabilities had been a big help there. Without Stark, he wouldn't have even have had access to the Tesseract case's plans, let alone the means to adapt it as a charging station.

The corners of Loki's mouth turned down. He was not going to think about Midgard right now. His daily headache was already in full bloom, he didn't need chest pains to go with it. And he would not start to hyperventilate out here at the work site again. Once was enough.

Loki despised this mortal body he was forced to wear. His strength was gone, his body's ability to heal itself was gone and he now had fight or flight responses that were ridiculously overblown and almost impossible to keep in check. He really didn't know how mortals coped with it all, the tiredness, the pain, and the Norms be damned over stimulation and mood swings that just made him want to scream. The only thing that stopped him from daily panic attacks was his mother's assurance that he wasn't getting older and wouldn't be aged and feeble by the time his sentence was up. It would have saved him no end of stress if he had known that fact while on Midgard.

While Frigga had begged for him to be allowed to keep his longevity, Loki now knew that no matter how heinous his unknown crime was, the council would have kept him alive at least until the BiFrost repair was complete. Although he had no doubt that their preferred method would have been a servitor mark such as Stark's. A mark he would have had to hope would be annually recharged, doubtless with several occasions of having to bargain future services to the Asgard Throne in exchange for optimal renewal.

Loki rubbed his forehead wearily. He might not have to worry about his life depending on a servitors mark, but in the meantime he had these damn headaches to deal with. Since he didn't want Asgard, by way of the healer's hall, to know how truly helpless and mortal he was, he couldn't get as much pain reliever as he would have liked, so he limited himself to one draught of medicine a day. He found if he took it right before bed, the sheer relief of having the pounding finally go away would normally make him drop off to sleep immediately.

Of course that might not work this evening. Stark was in Asgard. How was that even possible? Stark was in Asgard bidding on him. The very idea made his chest pound painfully.

_As if daily headaches weren't bad enough_, he thought sourly.

Stark was closeted with the All Father. Bidding on him. Bidding for Loki against other houses. Bidding like he was some sort of prize winning horse that would make a welcome addition to his stable.

He had already endured several years of whispering by the court over Odin trying to fob him off to several noble families who were willing to pay his maintenance while pledging to keep him in check. That however would be nothing compared to the uproar in the court if they ever found out the All Father was even entertaining the idea of joining him another male and a Midgardian one at that.

Placing three fingers on either side of his face, Loki applied steady pressure to his temples for about ten seconds; he then spent several minutes rubbing in a circular motion in an attempt to reduce the throbbing of his headache. Even though he knew the pain relief was only temporary and would return the minute he stopped massaging, it was a welcome respite none the less.

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Loki had been so busy reviewing tomorrow's schedule that he wasn't even aware that Tony was there until the man lightly touched his arm.

Loki had ordered Thor to come and get him immediately when Tony and Odin were finished, but it was several hours later when Tony by himself showed up, Loki made a mental note to add Thor's disregard of his request to the list of things he was going to punish his elder brother for when the opportunity presented itself.

"Honestly Stark," Loki spat at him, startled that the guards had allowed him so close and annoyed he hadn't even noticed his approach. He brushed Tony's hand off his arm and hissed in a low undertone while angrily brushing back an errant stand of hair behind his ear, "This whole situation is ludicrous. I'm already the laughing stock of Asgard without your insane offer."

Tony's lips thinned as his eyes followed the godling's movement, noting the slight tremor of Loki's hand before it pressed hard against the desk top, the god's own green flashed angrily daring him to mention it.

"This idea has nothing to do with a full of himself rap star," Tony told him. Shrugging when the cultural reference went right over the god's head Tony continued, "Ya know what. Just ignore that last one, stupid joke."

"No this whole idea is a stupid joke!"

"No, it's not. You're worried about being the laughing stock of a planet that you don't even want to stay on, a planet that keeps you a shackled prisoner." Tony shrugged and mugged a theatrically eye roll. "Okay maybe not real physical shackles right at this minute, but tomorrow they could be. A place that has shackled your powers and your freedom of movement probably enough to make you desperate to get them back anyway you can."

Loki looked down, refusing to look at Stark. Instead he studied the papers in front of him. He was mad for several reasons, the main one of course being the fact that Tony had totally embarrassed him and betrayed his trust during his last visit. Even if no one but themselves knew about it, he still writhed in shame whenever he thought about how much he had wanted to be with Stark and how devastated he was when the mortal had simply forgotten about him. Overlooked and forgotten would have been bad enough if Stark had been Asgardian, but as a mortal, one that he had given his trust to? Completely humiliating.

And this was on top of all the other real problems Loki has to contend with. The Bi-Frost crystal was finally growing at a visually measurable rate, however there is no guarantee that it was the exact structural and molecular match of the previous crystal. Some of Midgard's tech, would that he could use it, might help if he could access it, but he can't. Asgard's tech was all developed after the bridge so asking to use it to double check his work would most likely be viewed with deep distrust as to what he was really planning on doing with such technology. So all Loki could do without raising more suspicion than would be healthy was to hope for the best and spend sleepless nights worrying about material failure or the crystal resonating at the wrong pitch.

_Can you tune a bridge? _

Bridge tuning, yet another problem he has to deal with. Loki isn't sure if it's possible and spending those sleepless nights searching the library and archives have not even hinted at an answer.

The god also hated having the huge gap in his memory and being punished for something he couldn't even remember. It didn't help of course that he only had the indirect hints that he was being punished for crimes so heinous that he wasn't safe from reprisal on either realm. It was intolerable that he was alternately laughed at due to his reduced state and had to be protected from others for the same reason. And Stark's actions were not helping in the least.

In years past he would have just retreated to the library or gone on a long journey. But now he was on display every day at the bridge site. The guards, his and Odin's had often had to fend off hecklers and several times those who wanted to bandy something much sharper than words. And now everyone watching him today was going to wonder just who Stark was and why he was even talking to Loki.

And why was Stark here plaguing him with his stupid idea? Didn't he realise that Loki had enough to worry about? Stark who couldn't even with Jarvis' help, remember that Loki was scheduled to arrive for a once a year, twelve hour visit. The one highlight of his entire year and the man couldn't care to remember or even be bothered to send him a message telling him he was no longer interested.

Bile rose in his throat.

Stark was here with his senseless idea that was only possible because Thor had survived to adulthood making him superfluous. After all he was a now useless second prince, a seiðr wielding egri. And if this agreement… no… if this sale came to pass, there would be no question that the Midgardian would not be the one shape shifting to play the female.

Privately, Loki knew he couldn't even claim not to be occasionally attracted to men in general, and Stark in particular. While he was not the only Æsir who had occasionally indulged in activities that Asgard did not generally talk about, this particular behavior certainly wasn't admitted to by anyone who wanted to retain their social standing. Especially not those who already were under close scrutiny for being a seiðmenn. Something that Stark with his Midgardian '_do your own thing_' mindset simply did not understand and just the thought of trying to explain it to the irritating mortal made him wince.

Sick from the near constant throbbing in his temples, Loki stared unseeingly down at the papers in front of him. He hadn't even made it back from the throne room when he'd had to detour to retch until there was nothing left in his stomach but sour bile. That was never a good sign; it usually meant that by nightfall he would experience black spots in front of his eyes that sometimes got so bad that he couldn't see where he was going.

"Look, I know how desperate you are to get your powers back." Tony said not daring to touch him again but using an urgent tone of voice to reclaim his fractured attention. "You're so desperate that I'm afraid that one of these days you are going to make a deal that ends up killing you inside."

Loki would have liked to have lashed out and smacked the feigned look of concern right off of Stark's face, but instead his brows lowered even more and he contented himself with shooting the irritating little mortal the most baleful look he could currently manage.

At one point in time, such a look from Loki would have silenced beings far more powerful than Stark. Now however in his reduced state it barely caused the wretched man to pause his babbling for a moment.

Of course Stark never had been known to take a hint any more subtle than a plasma blast.

"I can't do anything about the fact that even once you are finished with this you will still be on probation, bound to whatever tasks Odin assigns you. The One-eyed bastard isn't budging on that one, but I sure as hell can help you get the blocks on your magic removed so things will be a bit easier and safer for you," Tony said earnestly.

"Oh I'm sure," Loki jeered allowing his lip to curl in scorn finally turning in his chair to look at Stark full on. "Because the All Father is just going to give me back my powers just because you ask him to." Sarcasm dripped from every syllable.

Tony snorted, making a face to clearly show how little he thought of Odin's forbearance and generosity. "Hell no, he's going to do it because I am going to pay him for the use of them."

"Like Odin needs your pitiful amount of wealth," Loki scoffed ignoring the blossom of pain in his chest and faint sourness in his mouth while he maintained a sceptical facade. "Please Stark, isn't that's a bit egotistical even for you?"

Stark's expression had a note of worry for some reason. Not exactly a look Loki was used to seeing on him.

"Well, not entirely," Stark leaned in a bit, peering closely at Loki. "Although I do think it gets on his last nerve that your mom is keeping you funded, and making Asgard pay for your guards. Odin is going to give your magic back to you because I told him I wanted you to have them for the benefit of Stark International and in return I am not only going to pay all your expenses, I am also going to restore your estates, and am pledging a fucking enormously large, and this is even by my standards, surety that I won't let you disappear while your sentence is incomplete."

"What?" Loki, turned wide eyes to Stark, stunned. Not so much that Odin would sell his services like a… But that he would demand or even allow his estates to be restored, but then a thought struck him. Of course he would allow it. After all restored estates can be subject to future confiscation, giving Odin. Of course, he thought cynically, Odin couldn't remove them again in the future if unless they were returned to him in the first place.

"Well I think barefoot and pregnant is what Odin really wants," Stark continued blithely, "but he is just going to have to settle for close at hand, busy and not invading anything."

Loki grimaced, his eyelids fluttering shut as a sharp stabbing pains raced across his forehead. While he was certain the All Father hadn't said it quite the way Stark did, past experience made him painfully aware how imaginative and vindictive his father the king could be when upset.

A hissing noise like that of an angry tea kettle prompted him to lift one eye to half-mast. The unwelcome sight of Stark's face contorted in anger did not tempt him to open it any further

After a long moment studying his face Stark spat, "Christ Almighty Loki, how fucking high is your blood pressure right now? Are you still having panic attacks? What are they giving you for them?" Stark wasn't shouting, but his voice did pick up enough volume and punch that Loki couldn't help wincing a little. Or notice the uneasy shifting of one of his guards. "Fuck it all Bambi you look like hell, you're nothing but skin and bones again, how do you put up with all this shit?"

"Because I have no choice Stark, it's this or die." Loki hissed, rubbing his temples refusing to look at the mortal even though he could see shoes never made in Asgard stop in front of him and feel the touch of fingers lightly brushing upon his arm. "Until I've finished my sentence or am ready to die, this is my life. Is there something about this you don't understand, I wouldn't think it would be that difficult for someone who is supposed to be a genius."

Callused fingers gripped Loki's chin hard, lifting his face until he couldn't help but lock onto the cognac brown eyes that appeared to be trying hard to see into his mind.

"You know what I understand? Most mortal bodies handle normal stress loads just fine. But Bambi, this place is another level of crap entirely." Stark's other hand brushed a few strands of hair behind his ear, trailing along after it until his palm was resting on Loki's shoulder. "Shit buddy. You're dealing with memory loss, a major public works construction project that would take a fricken team of structural engineers to schedule and oversee, re-discovering a scientific process that no one has used in a millennia or more and have a prison sentence hanging over your head in a place that already doesn't like you because you aren't a sword wielding maniac. And you have to be guarded twenty-four seven to prevent said maniacs from beating the crap out of you. That is a fuckload of stress babe, Hell it's a wonder you haven't already had a stroke."

Loki's eyes flew open.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**TRIGGER WARNINGS** – This fic will contain or mention - Arranged marriage, Forced compatibility. Most of it will not be graphic, but some areas could get trigger-y for people sensitive on that topic. Please do not read if you will have issues with any of these items.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

Beta'd by the most wonderful** Mima Mia. **Many, many thanks for your assistance.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

**If you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful.**

They all help the story placement on the search engine. Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	3. Chapter 3 - Eir is not amused

**Chapter Summary** \- After housing the God of Mischief in his tower for several years Loki is recalled to Asgard. This leaves Tony minus a lab partner, wingman and buddy to snark with on Movie Night. Pepper has moved to the west coast and married, SHIELD is doing some crazy shit. With the exception of occasionally seeing Bruce, Tony doesn't have much interaction with his former team mates. He wonders how it is possible to feel so lonely in a city so full of people. He's and engineer, he decides to fix this. - Sequel to Queens Grace. You do not have to have read Queens Grace to follow this.

Starting premise - Loki has was recalled to Asgard after several years of being a prisoner in Stark Tower as a favor to Queen Frigga when Asgard proved to be too dangerous to his now mortal and memory altered self. After his recall, Loki and Tony started a long distance friends with benefits relationship that takes place on Loki's yearly reward visit to Midgard.

**TRIGGER WARNINGS IN END NOTES PLEASE READ IF YOU MIGHT HAVE A PROMBLEM WITH CERTAIN SUBJECT MATTER. **

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**Summary -** Illicit drug use in Asgard? Eir and Tony are shocked. Shocked I say.

**Comment Challenge - **If we can get ten comments, I'll stop what I am doing and do a next day post of Chapter 4.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

Please visit me on tumblr RenneMichaels you'll see my Snowflake Avatar

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 3 – Eir is not amused.**

_Oh real smart move there Stark._

Tony wanted to smack himself. At the mention of a stroke, a mortal ailment he knew Loki was aware of, the god's already angry pale face drained even more, his eyes going all wild and shock-y looking.

Mentally kicking himself, Tony let go of Loki's chin shifting his grip to the god's forearms as he tried to sooth the god. "No, it's okay. We can fix this," he said, trying to sound both reassuring and upbeat. He had totally forgotten the god's irrational, anxiety towards any kind of illness or injury to his now weak mortal body.

"Don't worry, it will be fine; mortals know how to take care of this stuff." Tony said sliding fingers further down the stricken god's arms until they twined with Loki's. Squeezing the godling's hands he tried to talk Flawed Design back to the land of normal people. At least so far as normal referred to a reduced god getting ready to Z-out on him while he stood on an alien planet without enough wi-fi capacity for Jarvis to advise him.

_Jarvis or no Jarvis, Tony was not panicking._

He did however wonder fleetingly what the fuck was taking Pepper so long. Surely she was not still closeted with his royal windbag's clerks dotting i's and crossing t's?

Mentally shaking himself, Tony decided to try a '_matter of fact'_ approach.

Keeping his tone conversational Tony gave Loki's hand a little squeeze, "Look, I'm going to insist that Odin send you down for Bruce to look at and my doctor too. Hell yeah, we'll do a consult."

Loki took a long, shuddering breath. Okay, breathing is good. Tony smiled down at him, but his relief was short lived as the next breath was equally long and shuddering.

_Okay. Not good._

"You, Larry Daley." Tony called out to one of the waiting guards. "Come here. You're one of Frigga's guards right?" He figured this was a pretty safe bet, since this guys outfit was quite a bit different that most of the other guards he had seen. While all of the guards looked like they could easily rip out Tony's spine and use it as a musical instrument, these guys had more practical looking outfits than the guards he had seen in the palace.

Not plainer by any means, their stuff was equally detailed and finely done, but perhaps less symbolic looking. Which Tony guessed made sense; they weren't here to proclaim King Odin's might or the glory of Asgard or anything. They were here for one reason only and that was to protect Frigga's little mischief maker.

The guard hurried over, his hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. His look both haughty and antagonistic.

"I report directly to the Queen, my name is Aldfrig." He introduced himself with a hostile voice, narrowing his eyes and giving Tony another hard look as if to say that regardless of what type of 'Letter of Introduction', hastily scrawled by Prince Thor, Tony was currently on thin ice as far as he was concerned. "Who exactly are you and why are you bothering Prince Loki?"

Loki grimaced waving a hand weakly, trying to catch his breath enough to speak.

"Hush, you." Tony admonished him gently. "I got this; you just work on the whole breathing thing."

Tony turned back to the guard, pasting a superior sneer on his face. Not unlike the look he used when testifying before a hostile congress.

"Who am I? I'm Tony Stark, Iron Man, hero of Midgard, problem solver for Queen Frigga, close friend of Thor and Loki. If you haven't been living under a rock you may have heard of me." At the way the guards eyes shifted uneasily, Tony was pretty sure he had just scored a home run recognition wise, so he decided to push his luck while things were still going his way.

"I'm also the guy who's going to be dictating the quality of your living quarters for the next several years."

That statement got him a flinch.

"But right now I am the guy who wants you to help him shut this place down for the day, because the Prince has been summoned by his mother. You think you can do that? Or do I need to talk to your buddy over there?"

Apparently he didn't because after a short whispered conversation with Aldfrig, the second guard went to inform the construction supervisor that Prince Loki was leaving for the day and his work area needed to be stored for the evening. Aldfrig then helped Tony unhook the arc reactor from the crystal arrays and repack everything into the suitcase. Loki's curled lip and angry glare promised dire retribution for all of them…

As soon as the Trickster could properly catch his breath.

"Exactly what do you think you're doing Stark." Loki snapped at him, trying unsuccessfully to keep his upper arm out of Tony's grip.

"Getting you back to the palace in time to get ready for dinner like your mom told me to, after all we can't disobey the queen."

"I assure you that I have quite frequently disobeyed the queen." Loki growled in a breathy undertone.

"Yeah, and you're not five anymore, so maybe it's time you stopped." Tony retorted, steering him after the point guard, taking advantage of Loki's lack of concentration on anything other than arguing with him to get the god moving in the right direction.

_He hoped. _

Fuck, he was just following the guy with the sword, who presumably knew where they were going.

OoooO

Thor had met them on their way back and seeing Loki's pallor, he quickly relieved Tony of the suitcase, saying that he would take it to be recharged by Heimdall and then see it safety stored. Loki surfaced momentarily from his own world to scowl when the Thunderer solicitously asked Tony if the younger god was doing okay.

"I'm right here Thor," The younger god huffed, partially in aggravation, partially due to shortness of breath.

"Indeed. Should I summon a transport? You don't look well."

"I'm not an invalid Thor," Loki growled teeth snapping shut on all the other things he would have liked to say.

"Of course you aren't brother." Thor said in far too loud and hardy to be the least bit soothing. Even if, judging by his expression that was the tone the large blonde had been trying for.

Shouldering past his brother, fists clenched in irritation, Loki only made it a few more steps before his point guard held out a hand to stop them. Obviously aware of the drill, Loki stood rigidly, almost vibrating with irritation. Tony looked back to see that they were waiting for that Al-guy, who was listening intently as Thor whispered to him.

Whispered 'a la Thor' that is, which meant that the rest of the party, Tony included, could hear every word as Thor briefly instructed Frigga's head guard, with what basically amounted to the fact that Tony was authorized by Frigga to be with Loki. That Frigga would soon have a meeting with them to explain everything and until then, they were to look upon Tony's orders with the same level of compliance they did Thor's.

Glancing around, Tony could see that none of the guards looked thrilled at the news that they would be taking orders from a lowly Midgardian. However, he had to hand it to the guys; they were very professional about Tony's change in status. And quickly became that much more helpful in getting their little party to Loki's room using the quickest route. An act that seemingly required no consultation between them and left Tony wondering furiously how often this sort of speed was required.

Ostensibly they were returning to Loki's chambers so Frigga's boy could get cleaned and dressed for his audience with the Queen Mum. But really, Tony just thought he needed to set the god down somewhere quiet so he could either calm down or lose his shit in private.

Rolling a cautious eye toward the hyperventilating, yet still seething Mischief Maker, Tony figured he was in for one hell of a scream fest once the Rudolf got his breathing back under control.

Loki had only uttered a bitter word or two of protest when Tony took him by the forearm and began towing him back to the palace. The younger god didn't even offer any direction or guidance once they reached the palace proper. He just walked slowly, occasionally stopping, breathing deeply, looking for all the world like he was having trouble getting enough air to exist, let alone walk.

Fortunately they had already entered the palace proper when Loki detoured a few steps and dropped with much less than his usual grace on a low wall. "Wait…" he wheezed, wrapping his arms across his belly and dropping his head down towards his knees, "A moment."

"Sure thing Rudolf. You keep Al here company a minute, he looks winded."

Cloudy, pain filled green eyes rolled up to look at him for the briefest of moments.

Furious inside, but keeping his expression blank, Tony gestured for Aldfrig to go stand by Loki and walked part way back down the hallway with the other guard who had followed at his motioned request. "Can you find a servant and send them to get a doctor or something?" Tony asked, keeping his voice low and getting a blank look in return. "Nurse practitioner? Umm, can't remember the Asgard word… A little help here would be appreciated. Someone who takes care of people when they are sick or injured?"

"Healer?" The guard guessed.

"Yeah. Healer. I want a healer. Can you get one to make a house call without the whole palace knowing about it?" Tony frowned. "Or a chamber call I guess. Do they even do those here?"

"Of course my lord."

"Wonderful, they need to tell the healer that Tony Stark, Queen Frigga's guest has a slight problem and needs to see them immediately. Quicker than that even. Just don't mention the Prince at all. Okay?"

"Of course my lord, it will only take a moment," said the guard, slipping back the way they had come and quickly turning a corner.

Tony went back over and sat on the wall beside Loki and twined their fingers together, his thumb rubbing soft circles. No snide remarks or cutting looks were tossed his way even when Tony dared to brushed damp hair away from Loki's sweating, but oddly cool forehead. Tony attributed that small bit of grace to how bad his god must be feeling.

By the time the second guard had returned, Loki indicated that he was ready to continue and Tony had formulated a million questions that it was killing him not to ask.

OoooO

Loki's chambers didn't look anything like Tony had thought they would. The initial chamber they swept through was fairly large but as Thor had mentioned, it had been pretty much stripped bare. It still had some of the trappings of the grand room it had once been, such as the long rich looking cream colored drapes with gold and green trim, a fireplace that would put any other palace fireplace Tony had ever seen to shame and of course Viking Celtic looking stone work fricken everywhere. However what it did not have in it, was anything else besides a fuck-ton of empty built-in book shelves and one plain looking chair sitting just inside the door. Not a rug, not a table, nothing.

The bedroom was more what he was expecting, green canopy bed and books everywhere. A small tapestry-looking green and gold couch, side tables and matching chairs made up a small grouping that was angled to either allow a view of the balcony or the fireplace. Both of which, the fire place and balcony, were enormous and done with more of that finely wrought stonework he'd been seeing since he got here. Tony guided Loki over to the couch, pressing him down onto it.

Why Tony had imagined that Loki would have an Earthgardian-like apartment with an attached kitchen he had no clue. But it was okay since Al was pretty quickly tapping on some ear bling he was wearing and telling a fourth guard from who knows where, to get Tony a pitcher of security certified safe ice water for Loki to drink while they waited for the healer.

"Everyone out," Loki had panted, accepting the glass of water, but waving a slightly shaking hand dismissively.

Tony raised a brow as two of the guards finished their security check and nodding at Aldfrig passed through the main chamber and out into the hallway.

"I will bring the healer as soon as they arrive my lord," Aldfrig told Tony leaving the bedroom and pulling the big double doors shut behind him.

In truth Tony was kind of sorry to see him go, figuring the screaming was going to start soon. Turning back towards the seating group, he found Loki laying back on the couch holding a trembling tumbler of water to his temple.

Walking over to the couch Tony crouched down in front of the gracelessly slumping former god.

Green eyes flicked open a moment before a low cold voice told him, "I'm going to kill you for this."

"That is not news Rudolf," Tony told him wryly, wincing in sympathy when Loki's face scrunched up in pain. Spying a napkin on the water jug tray, Tony went over and stuffed it into the other tumbler and poured ice water on it. Squeezing the excess off onto the tray so it wouldn't drip so much, Tony folded the napkin into a rectangular pad. Walking around the couch, he held the cool damp cloth to Loki's forehead while his other hand gently stroked silky black hair out of the way.

OoooO

As Queen Frigga's guest, Tony didn't get just any Doc.

Hell no.

He got the Asgardian Dean of Medicine, who turned out to be Eir, that scary old broad who had treated Loki all those years ago when he first showed up injured in Stark Tower and later when he'd been so depressed. She had no sooner arrived and made a quick check of her patient before she and Tony had gone a quick few rounds. He was majorly pissed when he found out that no one had been treating or even checking his god for stress related illnesses since he had returned to Asgard. So far as Eir knew, Loki had only been having the occasional headache.

Fucking hand waving posers all of them.

"It's not like you didn't fucking know that he was prone to this shit." Tony hissed, following her into the attached bath.

Which meant the good Doctor was already more than a little pissed when she when reached into a linen closet to get some hand towels for a better cold compress and she noticed a huge jug of a pain elixir that Loki had 'somehow' acquired as a headache remedy. Apparently it was the same medicine that they had given him a small flask of when he first returned. And so far as the Healer Hall knew, Loki had only asked for another flask on two or three occasions after that.

A further hasty search of the cupboard uncovered a small box with broken bits of two similar jugs on a bottom shelf, tucked in the back and covered with an bath mat of some sort. How Loki had managed to liberated three of the two gallon plus jugs from the central storage room, she had no idea.

Nor was he telling.

"Loki," Eir hissed, pushing past Tony carrying the almost empty jug out to the main chamber, "How did you get this? How long have you been having headaches?" She peered at the date on the label noting that it was a recent batch and then glared at him appalled. "How many of these jugs have you taken? How often are you taking this?"

Eir was seriously not happy.

Sitting beside Loki on the couch, Tony felt him stiffen defensively, but the god looked away still sucking in air in deep artificially slow breaths, refusing to answer.

Tony sighed.

Snaking his arm behind him, Tony took in the dark shadows under Loki's eyes that stood out in harsh contrast against his too pale skin. Loki, if anything, looked even more stressed than he had on the trip back to his room and way worse than he did when while yelling at Odin in the throne room.

The whole arm thing most likely would have jump started their fight, if it hadn't been for Eir pelting the god with questions while poking, prodding and waving fairy wands and crystals all over the place. Every time Loki even looked like he was going to open his mouth to start yelling the old broad stuck an instrument or a pill in it.

Loki's face, or at least what Tony could see of it, was stiff and closed and his lips pressed tight. Tony leaned in and whispered in what he hoped was a low enough voice to be private, "Look, buddy. Before this is finished, I'm going to have them explain what happened and maybe even take that fucking rune off you." Loki didn't move, but he did show evidence of some interest, looking at Tony from the corner of his eye rather than staring out the window.

"That's part of my demand; I don't want them to leave you in total ignorance anymore, I think the whole 'not knowing thing' is at least part of your stress problems," The inventor continued even lower, his mouth right at Loki's ear.

On the other side of Loki, Eir who was checking the reading on some weird crystal egg thing, snorted, so obviously whispering was _'not'_ something you could do around Asgardians. Tony shrugged mentally, deciding to just roll with it.

"See, scary lady doc agrees with me."

Loki stared at the floor a moment and then looked back towards the window, his lips compressed into an impossibly thin line indicating that he was absolutely not taking notice of Tony or anything words he might say.

Patting the god's knee, Tony stood. "Be right back." He headed into the bathroom motioning discretely for Eir to follow him.

OoooO

It seemed Eir also had some communication ear bling, which may explain how she showed up so fast.

Leaving her to contact one of her assistants about his request and he suspected continue her search of the bathing room to see if there was other evidence of what the Mischief Maker had been up to, Tony went back into the bedroom and sat beside Loki, he reached over and curled his fingers around the lightly clenched fist Loki had lying on his knee.

Glancing sideways, he could see that whatever Eir had given Loki to calm him down seemed to have taken at least the edge off. His features were still slightly pinched with pain from his acknowledged headache, but his pulse was no longer rapidly fluttering under his jaw and he was not hauling in such deep breaths in an effort to get enough oxygen to hide the fact that what his body really wanted to do was keep hyperventilating.

"I fucked up," Tony stated quietly, not looking directly at Loki, but rather using his peripheral vision to watch the god's frown deepen. "I was stupid and forgetful and it hurt you and I have regretted it every single day of the last year. But maybe in a way it was good… Loki stiffened beside him, hand twitching as if he was going to pull it away. Tony insinuated two fingers into Loki's curled up hand, squeezing it slightly. "I said maybe, because it made me realize how important you were to me and how badly I missed having you as a friend and lover."

"It obviously wasn't that important to you Stark," Loki pained and soured expression was completely aligned with his scornful, defensive tone. "But then I never thought that it really was."

Even after all his years of experience, it was still hard for Tony to acknowledge that deep down, he was a shit. But in this case not only did he have to face that fact; he needed to let his god 'see' that he was facing it if he wanted any kind of a chance with him. Unlike Pepper, Loki did not automatically give him the benefit of the doubt, nor did he cut him any slack for old times' sake.

"Loki, except for Pepper, you should know better than most how much I take the wrong things for granted. It seems the more I care about people, the worse I treat them sometimes. And if I honestly never got it across to you how much I care about you and how much I value your friendship and affection, then I guess I suck at this emotional crap worse than I thought I did." He lightly rocked their joined hands while Loki worried his bottom lip, still not directly looking at Tony. Which the engineer guessed was fair. I wasn't like he was looking at Loki directly either, the both of them apparently relying on sidelong glances. Tony snorted, "Which I honestly didn't think was possible."

"I want to make it right. This last year of not knowing how you were doing drove me crazy." An unconvinced Loki turned towards him, but before he could say anything there was a knock on the double doors leading into the living room.

Loki sighed. "Enter."

"Prince Loki, there is a healer here to see Lady Eir, she is requesting admission."

"Only into the outer chambers," Loki instructed him.

Having a good idea of why the healer assistant was out there, Tony slid off the couch, just as Eir poked her head out of the bathroom, the box of jug shards in her hands.

"Bring that," she said to Tony with a lift of her chin towards the almost empty jug on the side table.

Loki watched them leave the room, brows furled slightly in confusion as to why Eir was ordering around a mortal. And why Tony Stark of all mortals was allowing her to do so.

He found out a short while later when Tony reappeared without Eir, but instead ushering in Pepper who brought a copy of the Alliance Agreement for them to both look over.

That was pretty much when, as Thor would say, the Bildgesnipe hit the picket line.

OoooO

"You bastard!" The godling screamed jumping up from the couch, the papers crumpled in his fist where a moment earlier he had been merely making tch-ing noises and occasionally snorting in disgust.

Not that those were necessarily the noises Tony had expected to hear if ever he proposed to someone. Granted they weren't shrill shrieks of joy or something else that would cause his ears to start bleeding. And he was grateful for that, however….

"Let me guess," Pepper said, her head leaning on the two fingers that were massaging her temples and looking up at the enraged god through her bangs. "Clause fifteen?"

Loki spun on her like the personification of fury, "Yessssss," He hissed, putting way too many s's in the word. Pepper held up her hand.

"That was all Odin. It was a last minute thing; Tony wasn't even there when he barged in and added it."

"Added what?" Tony asked, hurried flipping through the papers he had been ignoring. He was there when they made the deal, he didn't think he needed to look through them again, but obviously he was wrong.

"Oh." He said in a small voice, perching on the edge of the couch, a blush rising up his neck as he kept his eyes on the paper, not daring to take his eyes off the paper.

"Oh?" Loki spat shaking the crumpled contract in front of him.

"Oh!?' That's all you have to say?" His other hand shot out and grabbed Tony's bangs yanking his head back so he was forced to meet the god's flashing eyes.

**_"OH?!"_** Loki shrieked, his voice hitting octaves that Tony hadn't known a male voice could reach right before he slammed Tony's head hard with the palm of his hand.

Of course the fact that Loki could reach those octaves might have been part of the reason for Odin to stick in clause fifteen.

But perhaps it was best not to express that thought.

Flowing up on to Tony in a way that Tony did know he could, Loki pinned him against the backrest of the couch, the rolled up and crumpled contract shoved painfully under his chin as Loki began screaming at the top of his lungs in Elvish, or old Æsir or fucking Swahili for all Tony knew.

Pepper leapt to her feet.

Tony waved a hand frantically and shot her a 'just don't' look. He was worried that she would surprise the god if she reached for him and get struck in an adrenalin fueled accident. So long as Loki was only screaming, he figured he should let him vent a little. Lord knew the guy could use it. Lord knows Tony deserved it.

Pepper, due no doubt to their many years of subliminal communication, not only knew to back off right away, but she even hurried over when he heard the door open to make sure the guard didn't come in and escalate the situation. Confident that she would handle the guard, Tony turned his attention back to the screaming maniac on top of him.

Slowly, so as not to startle the screaming god, Tony drifted his hands up the sides of Loki's legs to his waist and then allowed them to settle lightly against the small of the gods back. Loki didn't so much as flinch when Tony started rubbing what he hoped were soothing circles on either side of the god's spine. There was something so sexy about a snarling Loki that Tony made a mental note to dust out his kink closet, because surely he should not have to wrestle against getting a boner while being screamed at so loud that masonry on the ceiling vault was in danger of being shaken loose.

But it was. The cloudy, dull jade eyes were now bright green with anger and Loki's thin pale cheeks were flushed an attractive pink, the only problem as Tony saw it, was that the man crouched over him, wouldn't shut up and kiss him.

Okay, so the jabbing him under the jaw with the contract was a bit annoying, so that was a second problem. And maybe the fact that he was no doubt missing out on some really imaginative cussing, but honestly that was all. He decided to at least address the last problem when Loki paused after an amazingly long string of vindictiveness to take a deep breath.

"Buddy, I understand you're upset, but if you could just swear in English so I could understand you, that would be a big help."

For a moment, a tiny one, so small an instant that it was hardly worth noting, the god paused. Jerking upright as if stuck with a pin, Loki looked at him amazed and then the Norse god of Righteous Indignation let loose another torrent of screaming, thankfully mostly in English this time.

You had to give it to him, Tony thought admiringly. The guy could swear up a storm.

A storm that Tony was content to ride out. His eyes roamed over Loki's face, taking in every change he could find, the slightly pinched look around his nose from losing weight again, committing to memory the way his god's silky black hair always seemed to escape from behind his ears, drifting down in odd tendrils that caressed his sharp cheekbones... Noticing how complete he felt to be this close, with his hands on caressing Loki's back.

So yeah, there was some pretty vile stuff being spouted, and frankly Tony was being referred to in a manner that would have made his childhood house keeper look to the heavens for assistance. But for the most part none of it was exactly wrong, and amazingly enough, while imaginative it wasn't as personal as Tony had expected it to be.

When the god had finally got all the 'insensitive oaf', 'unappreciative moron' along with other well deserved stuff spewed out in English, he then circled around to the match that had lit this little tinder blast. That being clause fifteen. Tony gave him his best puppy dog eyes, the ones he had cribbed off of Cap'n Spangles when he was disappointed with Tony.

Hey, what do ya know, they worked.

Loki wound down, stopped shouting and just glared at Tony.

"I didn't know about it Lo. I definitely wouldn't have asked for it, I understand how it would upset you, hell it would upset anyone to have this sprung on them." Ignoring the suddenly narrowing eyes Tony pushed on soothingly. "I'll go with you to your mother to see if maybe we can all get together and convince Odin to change it."

Which was apparently exactly the wrong thing to say.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

**If you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful.**

They all help the story placement on the search engine. Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

Beta'd by the most wonderful** Mima Mia. **Many, many thanks for your assistance.

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**TRIGGER WARNINGS** – **TRIGGER WARNINGS - TRIGGER WARNINGS - TRIGGER WARNINGS -TRIGGER WARNINGS - TRIGGER WARNINGS - TRIGGER WARNINGS**

This chapter will *contain or mention* - Self medication with stolen drugs by a depressed person if this is a problem for you please don't read this chapter

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I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	4. Chapter 4 - Are we good?

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I am currently revising my stories to make sure they reflect all the corrections I have done on the other site I post on. It is still posted in it entirety on my other site. If you have any questions, please visit me on archiveofourown or tumblr my username is RenneMichaels if you see my Snowflake Avatar you're in the right place.

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Other Fics by Renne Michaels

**The Littlest Trickster** \- COMPLETE - Tony Stark finds out that neither he nor Loki are any match for a child determined to return to Earth to go Trick-or-treating. Asbrand Stark, the newest heir of Asgard experiences his first Halloween. Although getting permission to return to earth is a trick in its self, the littlest trickster might have another one up his sleeve. Queens Grace Verse AU, Comes after Palaces of Sand and Gold, but can be read alone. Co-written with Ykmust. 13,740 words.

**Anthony of Asgard** \- COMPLETE - After several years of being housed in Stark Tower as a state prisoner of Asgard, Loki is recalled to Realm Eternal. Devastated Tony is now minus a lab partner, wingman and a snark buddy for movie night. Pepper has moved to the west coast and married, SHIELD is doing some crazy shit and with the exception of occasionally seeing Bruce, Tony doesn't have much interaction with his former team mates. He wonders how it is possible to feel so lonely in a city so full of people. However he's and engineer and a genius... he can fix this. All he has to do is convince Queen Frigga and Odin All Father to go along with his plan. - Sequel to Queens Grace

**Queens Grace** \- COMPLETE WITH SEQUEL - After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years, making Asgard unsafe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, Frigga decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. 225,458 words.

**Palaces of Sand and Gold** \- COMPLETE If Tony and Loki ever broke up, Tony and the SI lawyers wouldn't stand a chance against Odin and his Logmars in a custody struggle. After all third in line for the throne until Thor starts popping out kids surely beat being heir to Stark International. At least as far as Odin is concerned, and he is the guy with the army full of immortals. But what if it wasn't a case of them breaking up and having a full on custody battle? What if it was just a parental struggle against an overzealous grandparent? Already not a fan of Asgard, Tony has to put up with Odin interrupting the Stark family vacation. 4564 words

**How Desperate are You? **\- COMPLETE WITH SEQUEL – Loki has had a bad year and after leaving Midgard with Thor and challenging Odin isn't making it any better, but no matter how smart you are… Sometimes stubborn happens. It may not seem to be in your best interest, but how desperate are you for a resolution? Any resolution. Loki is returned to Asgard and nothing good happens, but Loki isn't the only one with issues, Odin has plenty of his own, especially in the realm of A+ Parenting. Loki is desperate to escape from Asgard, Odin and his past. 73,000 Words

**Desperate for Change** \- COMPLETE - Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy finds that outing the trickster god to the general public is going to be difficult for Loki, but equally difficult will be Tony's acceptance that things between the three will change, and not always the way he wants them to. Sequel to How Desperate Are You? 77,000 Words

**Lessons from Asgard – Courtesy of Loki 2** \- The Dark World /strong COMPLETE - A primer for anyone who has ever wondered what the heck is going on in the Eternal City. More humor than spoiler, but if you are a stickler please don't read. Asgard Secrets Exposed

**Lets Bark a Deal** \- COMPLETE - A spell goes wrong leaving the Avengers and Loki with a very different outlook to say the least. Tony's need to make a deal with Loki is hampered by the body he finds himself in. One Shot


	5. Chapter 5 - Dinner with the other folks

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	6. Chapter 6 - Time to come clean

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	7. Chapter 7 - Chatting with the FIL to be

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	8. Chapter 8 - The Missing Years

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	9. Chapter 9 - Sky's the limit

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	10. Chapter 10 - Is it Christmas Again?

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	11. Chapter 11 - Tony has a plan

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	12. Chapter 12 - Tony Tossing

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	13. Chapter 13 - Whatever makes you happy

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	14. Chapter 14 - Are we good?

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	15. Chapter 15 - Shrink

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	16. Chapter 16 - An agreement of sorts

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	17. Chapter 17 - Shopping Trip

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	18. Chapter 18 - You're Invited

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	19. Chapter 19 - Asset Grab

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I am currently revising my stories to make sure they reflect all the corrections I have done on the other site I post on. It is still posted in it entirety on my other site. If you have any questions, please visit me on archiveofourown or tumblr my username is RenneMichaels if you see my Snowflake Avatar you're in the right place.

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	20. Chapter 20 - Gifts

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	21. Chapter 21 - Styling

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	22. Chapter 22 - Suprise!

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	23. Chapter 23 - Is there a problem?

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	24. Chapter 24 - shall we mingle?

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	25. Chapter 25 - Not all suprises are good

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	26. Chapter 26 - Lunch?

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	27. Chapter 27 - A Masterful Performance

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	28. Chapter 28 - Time Passages

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	29. Chapter 29 - Time Passages what you want

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	30. Chapter 30 - Time Passages – Let's take

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	31. Chapter 31 - Time passages Drinking from

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	32. Chapter 32 - Time Passages - Revisting

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	33. Chapter 33 - Time Passages - Fluff & Bro

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	34. Chapter 34 - Time Passages Darcy & Eddie

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	35. Chapter 35 - What a Tease

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**If you are not reading this on fanfiction .dot. net or Archiveofourown .dot. org then you are reading a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to anywhere but those two sites. Also if you're PAYING to read it, you're being cheated, because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE. Also please be aware that illegal mirror sites are often riddled with spyware and viruses.**


	36. Chapter 36 - What have you done?

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

I am currently revising my stories to make sure they reflect all the corrections I have done on the other site I post on. It is still posted in it entirety on my other site. If you have any questions, please visit me on archiveofourown or tumblr my username is RenneMichaels if you see my Snowflake Avatar you're in the right place.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

**If you are not reading this on fanfiction .dot. net or Archiveofourown .dot. org then you are reading a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to anywhere but those two sites. Also if you're PAYING to read it, you're being cheated, because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE. Also please be aware that illegal mirror sites are often riddled with spyware and viruses.**


	37. Chapter 37 - Aftermath

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

I am currently revising my stories to make sure they reflect all the corrections I have done on the other site I post on. It is still posted in it entirety on my other site. If you have any questions, please visit me on archiveofourown or tumblr my username is RenneMichaels if you see my Snowflake Avatar you're in the right place.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

**If you are not reading this on fanfiction .dot. net or Archiveofourown .dot. org then you are reading a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to anywhere but those two sites. Also if you're PAYING to read it, you're being cheated, because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE. Also please be aware that illegal mirror sites are often riddled with spyware and viruses.**


End file.
